Trend of regional growth and disparity in Major states of India

Several studies were conducted in the past to examine the issue of regional disparity in India before the recession period based on old SDP series. In this study, an attempt has been made to probe the level of regional disparity considering three measures of inequality viz., Maximum to Minimum Ratio (MMR), weighted Gini Index and weighted Theil Index. Growth rates of aggregate domestic product of major states of India in the pre-reform (1981–1993), post-reform and pre-recession (1994–2008) and post-recession (2009–12) periods have been analysed. Our results indicate that during the pre-reform era (1981-90s), there was somewhat balanced growth for the states under consideration. Probably, policy driven investment strategy ensured public investments and licensing policies ensured private investment for the relatively under-developed states. But as a sequel to reforms in 90’s, the regional disparity seems to have widened across the selected states and continued to persist thereafter throughout the post-recession period (2009–2012) as revealed by the three measures of inequality.