Rajasthan has broken away from Bimaru tag: Arvind Panagariya

JAIPUR: Seeking a mandate for Vasundhara Raje, Prime minister Narendra Modi in November 2013 had said that if the people want to see Rajasthan shed it's Bimaru tag, they need to ouster Congress.
Nothing much seems to have changed on the ground in the space of a little over one year, but the recently appointed deputy chairman of NITI Ayog, Arvind Panagariya on Thursday said that Rajasthan has already broken away from that acronym used to describe the backward states in the country.
"A lot has changed in the state. There are 11 states below Rajasthan in terms of GDP. The state certainly has broken away from the Bimaru tag," said Pangariya at a Jaipur Literature Festival session on "Rajasthan: Out of Bimaru."
The term Bimaru was coined by Ashish Bose in the mid-1980s taking the first letters of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh, but over the past decade, these states have made significant strides in achieving higher growth and improving on many development indicators.
"These states are catching up fast. Even though their base is low, they are doing well on incremental growth. When states start performing, growth indicators grow faster and social indicators catch up later. What is uniform in these states behind the improved performance is governance," said Bibek Debroy, full time member of the NITI Ayog (National Institution for Transforming India).
Arvind Panagariya, one of the main brains behind the recent labour reforms in Rajasthan and was vice-chairman of Rajasthan chief minister's economic advisory council, lavished praises on the state government for growth oriented policies.
"Nobody was able to take the bull by horns. The chief minister is making changes in the country nobody has done. Labour reforms are very important for employment intensive manufacturing sectors like textiles and food processes. The contribution of manufacturing to Rajasthan's GDP is only 10% below the national average of about 16%," said Panagariya.
Comparing the per capita income, Debroy said that Rajasthan is one or two years away from overtaking West Bengal in per capita net state GDP. In 2013-15, the per capita GDP of Rajasthan at current prices was at Rs 65,098 compared to West Bengal's Rs 69,413.
After registering better economic expansion compared to the national average, these states are challenging acronym Bimaru, which sounds like 'Bimar' which means sick in Hindi.
The session was moderated by Ashok Malik.