Uttar Pradesh, the most populous state in India, aspires to have a trillion-dollar GDP within the next five years. Chief Minister Yogi Adityanath has said that a plan is being developed to reach this objective ever since November. The goal is to make UP, which accounts for around 8% of India’s GDP, a crucial component of PM Narendra Modi’s plan to grow the economy to $5 trillion.
At current prices, Uttar Pradesh’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), which represents the total production from all economic sectors, was around $255 billion at the end of 2021–22, or about one-fourth of the goal.
According to information from the Union Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation (MoSPI), it was worth Rs 11.8 trillion (about $155 billion) as of 31 March 2022 in real terms (at 2011–12 prices, a metric that takes inflation into account).
Experts told ThePrint that for UP to expand at a least of 32 percent annually, a rate they claim the state has never even slightly experienced, in order to reach the $1 trillion target.
UP’s GSDP increased by an average of 3.2 percent yearly from 2017 to 2022 (in real terms, prices from 2011–12), rising from Rs 10.12 trillion to Rs 11.8 trillion.
In contrast, the GSDP growth rate was 6.9 percent annually under Adityanath’s predecessor, the Samajwadi Party’s (SP) Akhilesh Yadav, who served as CM from 2012 to 2017.
The latter took power with UP’s GSDP at Rs. 7.24 trillion.
However, experts point out that the data must be viewed in their proper perspective before a determination can be reached on either party’s administrative prowess. One reason, according to them, is that when Adityanath assumed office, the country was still feeling the effects of demonetisation. Second, they assert that the statistics during Akhilesh’s term could capture the effects of a development drive he launched following the shock of the 2014 Lok Sabha elections.
Reached for comment, Alok Kumar, Principal Secretary to the government of UP (Planning & Programme Implementation) and nodal officer of the ‘One Trillion Dollar Economy’ project, made light of the numbers.
Kumar said they hoped to see the growth rate figure for 2021-22 and 2022-23 go up as the Government of India revised its figures following “adjustments”.
