Bhubaneswar: The Economic Survey for 2017-18, tabled in the Assembly on Thursday, brought to the fore a "disconcerting issue" relating to the declining shares of industry in the gross state domestic product (GSDP).
The industry share has declined from 43.6 per cent in 2011-12 to an estimated 34.8 per cent in 2017-18, even as the mineral-rich state has a huge potential for industrialisation, the survey states.
During the current fiscal, mining, manufacturing and construction sectors are estimated to grow moderately at 4.6 per cent, while electricity, water supply and other utility services sub-sector is expected to clock the growth rate of 9.6 per cent. With the shrinking of industrial outputs, agriculture continues to account for an imposing 62 per cent of the total unorganised workforce in the state. At present, services account for 45 per cent of the GSDP, industry 35 per cent and agriculture sector about 20 per cent.
However, the state government hopes that with the four investment regions - National Investment and Manufacturing Zone in Kalinga Nagar, Petroleum, Chemicals and Petrochemicals Investment Region in Paradip, Port-Based Manufacturing Zone at Dhamra and Information Technology Investment Region in Bhubaneswar - coming up, it will transform Odisha into the industrial gateway to eastern India.
Despite the sorry state of industrial growth, the state's economy continues on a path of steady improvement and is estimated to grow at 7.14 per cent as against the national average of 6.5 per cent in India this financial year.
There is a strong rebound in the service sector with a double-digit growth figure of 12.4 per cent. The inflation rate of food and beverages has fallen sharply to 1.3 per cent per annum.
There has been some positive developments in the social sector as well. School dropout rate has fallen sharply to 4.2 per cent at the primary education level.
Teacher-student ratio has also improved to 1:24 and 1:23 for primary and upper primary levels, respectively. Student dropout rate at the secondary education level has also come down to 5.21 per cent.
