Disparity between States growing: Study

Regional disparity has been growing over the years, shows a new study which evaluates the governance performance of 19 major States. The research, conducted by Sudipto Mundle, Samik Chaudhury and Satadru Sikdar, was published in The Economic and Political Weekly earlier this month. 

Five of the six best-performing States in 2001 — Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Kerala and Punjab — continue to be the top performers in 2011. Likewise, four of the six worst-performing States in 2001 — Odisha, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh and Bihar — remained at the bottom in 2011. 

This led the researchers to conclude that “development clusters” — combinations of quality service delivery and high per capita income — are emerging among the more developed States in the south and west of the country, leaving behind the less-developed States, especially in the eastern region. 

While there are various approaches to evaluating performance of the State governments, the researchers use “output” — the quality of service delivery — as a measure of governance quality.

 Five sets of criteria were used to rank the States: infrastructure, social services, fiscal performance, justice, law and order, and quality of the legislature. 

Only official government data were used. 

The study covers 19 States which account for 96 % of the population, for which requisite data was available from 2001-02 to 2011-12.