Statistical Evaluation of Inter-District Disparities in Socio-Economic Development of Punjab

The present study is an attempt to provide a comparative picture of inter-district disparities in agricultural sector, infrastructure facilities and sacia-ecanomic development in Punjab. The district-wise secondary data with respect to fifty one development indicators related to agricultural sector, infrastructure facilities and overall socio-economic sector have been analysed for the period 2011–12. The composite indices of development based on optimum combination of socio-economic indicators have been worked out for different districts of Punjab. The level of development was evaluated separately for agriculture, infrastructure and overall socio-economic development. Analysis revealed wide disparities in the level of development in different districts. According to the overall socio-economic development, five districts namely Ludhiana, Jalandhar, Patiala, Fatehgarh Sahib and Amritsar have been identified as highly developed districts, five districts as high middle level developed, six low middle level developed and the remaining four districts have been identified as low developed districts. For bringing about uniform development, potential targets for various development indicators were estimated for low developed districts. The study further revealed that the low developed districts require improvements of various dimensions in most of the indicators for enhancing the overall socio-economic development of the state.