Maharashtra leaves Gujarat behind as India's best state in terms of economic and social development

Maharashtra has topped a list of states' rankings on economic, social and governance parameters. Gujarat and Tamil Nadu follow in the composite rankings for states, where Care Edge has also taken into account performance on infrastructure, financial inclusion, fiscal management and environment.

On the governance front, Uttar Pradesh is ranked third, behind Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. Its chief economist Rajani Sinha attributed this to the Yogi Adityanath-ruled state's gains in ease of doing business.

She explained that the highest weightage has been given to progress on ease of doing business, followed by e-governance records, conviction rates and police strength while arriving at the governance rankings.

Sinha said the overall rankings suggest the gains made over a longer period of time, and the pecking order is unlikely to change soon. However, sustained efforts on the policy front can result in shifts over a longer period of time.

Stating that physical infrastructure is getting due attention, she asked the states to focus on social infrastructure like health and education, if we were to realise the potential of the favourable demographics.

States in the west and south are doing better largely because of the beneficial policies that they have adopted, Sinha said. She said Tamil Nadu's third position in the overall rankings is driven by its performance on the social aspects, even though neighbouring Kerala leads the list on this parameter.

Maharashtra tops the overall list, driven largely by its performance on financial inclusion and fiscal fronts, Sinha said, adding that Gujarat fares better on the economic and fiscal front.

Gujarat is ranked lower on the social parameters but higher than states like Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Uttar Pradesh, Jharkhand and Bihar, the list showed.

Odisha is the top-ranked state on the fiscal parameter and is followed by Maharashtra and Gujarat while under the head of the environment, Andhra Pradesh leads, with Karnataka and Telangana following it.

Published on: Wednesday, January 11, 2023, 09:58 PM IST