Maharashtra has topped the overall ranking list prepared by credit rating agency CARE Ratings, scoring high on social, financial inclusion, and fiscal categories.
It is followed by Gujarat faring well in economic and fiscal categories, while Tamil Nadu ranks third with an edge in social and governance categories.
According to CARE Ratings, the rankings are based on seven pillars – economic, fiscal, social, infrastructure, financial inclusion, environment, and governance – and covers 46 indicators to rank the major states in the country. The ranking report attempts to provide a comprehensive quantitative evaluation of states’ performance. The ranking covers not just the state's economic, infrastructure and fiscal performance, but also aspects of sustainability and inclusive growth.
“Maharashtra, the financial capital of the country, tops the ranking with a favourable score not just in financial inclusion, but also for the state government finances and social indicators. In this comparative study, the leading states could offer the others a model to follow,” said Mehul Pandya, Managing Director and CEO, CARE Ratings.
While the Union Territories were excluded from the study, CARE Ratings had the states into two categories – Group A (large states) and Group B (Northeast, hilly and small states).
Gujarat tops the ranking in the economic category with healthy data on per capita gross state domestic product (GSDP), GSDP growth, foreign direct investment (FDI) flows and high share of industry and services in GSVA (Gross state value added). Karnataka and Maharashtra follow the topper.
Better score on revenue and fiscal deficit and healthy debt management indicators (Consolidated Sinking Fund & Guarantee Redemption Fund) translated into Odisha topping the ranking in the fiscal category.
In the fiscal category, Punjab ranks the lowest in Group A as the state performs poorly in debt sustainability as well as debt management, the study states.
In the social category, Kerala emerged as the clear winner with the highest score in all the social indicators considered, covering education, health and income distribution.
Punjab and Haryana topped on infrastructure ranking, mainly due to high power availability, railway density and greater irrigated area.
