Mir Farhat
Srinagar, June 11: Industrial growth rate in the State has seen a steep slump from the last decade with an average rate of mere 3.74 percent which is far behind from the rest of the states that see 6.87 average growth rate annually, a Planning Commission of India’s report says.
Experts and stakeholders blame the successive Governments for “apathy” and less investment in the sector for the continuing slump in the industrial growth.
The PCI report paints a gloomy picture of the industrial growth rate between 2000 and 2003 which declined from 19.43 percent in year 2000-2001 to -4.23 percent in 2002, and went down further to -12.03 percent in 2003.
“The State saw a steady increase between 2003 and 2008 when it rose to 6.88 percent,” the report says, but after 2008 it has abruptly declined to 3.79 per cent in 2013-2014.
Economists say one of the many reasons for the declining industrial growth in the State is lack of overall public investment by the governments.
“Major reason for the slump in industrial growth is that Governments have not invested in capital expenditure,” says Haseeb Drabu, a renowned economist.
Drabu says the overall level of investment by the Governments is very small, especially in the last five years it has been declining because the Government has cut the expenditure to 20.95 per cent. He says the growth rate has also not been good at all at the national level.
Sameer Malik, a young Kashmiri financial specialist working in a Saudi firm, says the average 3.74 growth shows lack of employment creation in industry and less enthusiasm of the Government towards industry and failure to generate funds of its own.
Malik also blames the political crises for having drastic impact on industrial growth that is evident in years like 2010-2011 in which growth declined to -2.5 percent.
Former President Federation Chamber of Industries Kashmir FCIK Shakeel Qalander says due to Government’s apathy the state has been converted into a consumer state.
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