Gujarat is a state that is generally in the limelight, for right and wrong reasons. The recent election ending in victory for Narendra Modi has thrown up various issues — whether the state has really done as well as has been projected by the government, whether such development has reached the grassroots, whether the people have genuinely benefited, among others. Using published data, one can see that the growth in the state has been of a phenomenal degree. This does not suggest that all classes of the society have benefited equally or that some have not become worse off. But the picture that emerges is of a state run better than most others.

Take economic growth, which averaged 7.7 per cent annually in the nineties. During the period 2001-2006, the economy has grown at an average of 10.2 per cent annually. Per capita income in constant prices has grown at a rate of 8.1 per cent annually during the period 2000-2006, the highest rate of growth amongst the large states. Natural calamities (drought, earthquakes) and manmade ones (recession, riots), Gujarat has seen it all in the last eight years and the high performance points clearly to the resilience of the economy. In fact, growth in Gujarat has always been above the India average, except for the years of recession. Industrial recession hits the state hard since almost 30 per cent of the income generated in the state comes from the manufacturing sector and more than three-quarters of manufacturing income stems from the registered sector in the state.

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