Naidu eyes double-digit growth for AP

Vijayawada:) Touted as a first-of-its-kind exercise, the Andhra Pradesh took up evaluation of sector-wise contribution to the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP).

At a two-day conference with district Collectors and state-level officials that began here today, Chief Minister N Chandrababu Naidu released a report on the “First-quarter Assessment for April-June 2015-16 and the Way Forward.”

The state government is currently working on the comprehensive Double Digit Growth Plan to achieve a per-capita income over Rs 10 lakh by 2029-30, a state government release said.

Discussing on Double-Digit Growth Strategy, Naidu said that, in Q1, Andhra Pradesh has achieved 9.72 per cent GSDP growth rate against India’s GDP growth rate of 7.1 per cent.

Noting that the conference is an important platform to evaluate how to achieve double-digit growth, he asked collectors to play an active role in creating a sustainable economy by mobilising funds and resources.

In the sector-wise GSDP contribution, agriculture contributed 12.52 per cent to the GSDP against 1.9 per cent of agriculture’s contribution to India’s GDP; industries contributed 7.19 per cent to the GSDP against 6.5 per cent nationally while services contributed 10.15 per cent to the GSDP against 8.9 per cent contribution to India’s GDP.

In a comparative analysis of Gross District Domestic Product and Per Capita Income (2015-16) among different districts, Visakhapatnam and Krishna districts are leading in these indicators while Srikakulam and Vizianagaram have been rated as under-performing districts.

Naidu pointed out the huge difference of per capita income between various mandals in each district and suggested positive interventions and spending of resources to attain inclusive growth across all the mandals of the state in order to increase per capita income.

The report also evaluated revenue distribution of districts on parameters like commercial taxes, prohibition and excise, Registration and Stamps, Transport, Forest, Mines and Geology and land revenue.

The report states that districts such as Nellore, Vizianagaram and Srikakulam have high growth potential but are contributing the least.