After the 20th Century: Growth, Convergence and Divergence in Indian Mountainous States

Abstract

This paper deals with the growth, convergence, divergence and inequalities in the mountainous states of India. The data used in this paper was collected from the RBI site, which covers two decades – the first from 2000-01 to 2010-11 and the second from 2011-12 to 2021-22. By analyzing the data, this study attempted to address the compound annual growth rates with regression equation and concluded that, Meghalaya has the lowest and Sikkim has the highest net state domestic product growth rate for the entire time period (2000-01 to 2021-22). In mountainous states, the average growth rate of per capita net state domestic product declined from 6.13 percent in 2000-01/2010-11 to 4.40 percent in 2011-12/2021-22. Higher per capita net state domestic product growth rates were estimated for Himachal Pradesh, Mizoram, Sikkim, Tripura and Uttarakhand; when compared to the average growth rate for the mountainous states and India as a whole. Over the period 2000-01/2010-11 to 2011-12/2021-22, the states with the highest compound annual growth rates on per capita net state domestic product were Assam and Mizoram. In a detailed analysis of income inequality, the gini coefficient increased from 0.122 to 0.263 during 2000-01 to 2021-22 and the coefficient of variation also showed an increase. The findings revealed that there was a significant presence of σ - divergence, β - divergence and α - divergence in the mountainous states in the first, second decades and throughout the 21st century.