Public debt, unemployment up in Madhya Pradesh, says Economic Survey

BHOPAL: Growing public debt coupled with rising numbers of unemployed youth in the state should set off alarm bells for Shivraj Singh Chouhan government that has been in power in the state for over 17 years. As if it was not enough, the employment generated by the industrial sector has also slumped, reveals the state Economic Survey released a day before the presentation of the budget on Tuesday.
Besides poor indicators of school dropout rates, the Economic Survey also revealed poor health indicators and said “special efforts are required” to bring them at par with other states. In the state with a lot of politics revolving around cows, the milk production is less than the production of eggs and meat.
By March 31 ,2021, the net public debt is expected to be around Rs 2,09,019.47 crore against Rs 1,59,008.74 crore in March 2020, the survey said. The market component of this debt is 60.80%. However, the survey said that the per capita income in the state has been estimated to go up to Rs 1,50,326 from Rs 1,24,685 last year's estimated per capita income, an increase of 18.87%.
The revenue receipts of the state are also expected to go up by 20.25% as the economic survey indicated revenue receipts of Rs 1,64,677.45 crore in 2021-22. By December 2021-22, the number of MSMEs (medium, small and micro enterprises) was 1,51,038 against 1,55,450 in 2020-21 . There was an investment of only Rs 7,733.69 crore in MSMEs in the state by December 2021 against Rs 19,011.98 crore in the MSMEs in 2020-21. In 2021-22, this sector generated only 8,33,835 jobs against 13,08,923 in the year 2020-21.
In 2020, the number of unemployed in the state was 24.72 lakh which went up to 30.23 lakh in the next financial year. The Economic Survey said that the percentage of educated youth has also gone up from 93.37 % (of the total number of unemployed) to 95.07 %.