From CK Nayak
New Delhi: With a double digit compound average annual growth of 10.8 per cent and 27,300 crore rupees worth Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), Meghalaya has emerged as one of the most competitive states in the country among the North East states.
This was revealed in a study by Harvard Professor Michael Porter’s Institute of Competitiveness in collaboration with the Mint, India’s second largest business newspaper published by HT Media Ltd.
The Institute for Strategy and Competitiveness (ISC) is a nonprofit research and education organization founded by Michael Porter and based at Harvard Business School in Boston, Massachusetts.
The study said that the hill state has rich forest resources – about 3108 sq. km. Meghalaya’s turmeric is considered to be among the best in world and it is one of the leading states in the North East in terms of production and supply of flowers to the markets.
The State has a vast potential and scope for hydro-electricity and also good education system. The awards, based on the report by the reputed Institute, were conferred on different states across various categories including that of North East, here recently.
The report compares states with similar per capita Gross Domestic Product to assess their competitiveness. It looks at factors like availability of land, labour and capital, the role played by the governments in facilitating businesses and the profile of consumers in each state to evolve a state competitiveness index.
The report stresses that the 29 Indian states, with their varied demography, sizes, natural resources and income levels cannot be compared without accounting for such differences. To this effect, states are categorized under various categories starting from factor-driven economies.
With a majority of the Indian states still lagging behind on many social and economic indicators, the governments – both at the states and the centre – will have to take steps to improve infrastructure, generate jobs, revamp the education and healthcare systems and step up the quality of governance.
As per the study, at current prices Meghalaya’s GSDP was 4.2 billion dollars (Rs.27,300 crore) in 2014-15. The State’s GSDP has expanded at a compound annual growth rate of 10.8 per cent between 2004-05 and 2014-15.
The study also took note that the state capital Shillong has a National Institute of Fashion Technology and an Indian Institute of Management.