KOCHI: Kerala has been topping all the other states in meeting the millennium development indicators by doing well in education, health, sanitation yet it has not been getting the necessary support from the Union government for furthering its growth, said econometrist and Virginia university professor Chandra Ranade.

Ranade questioned the Centre’s policy of not rewarding states which performed well in terms of development indicators. “Maybe the policy is not to help states that do well. You don’t get help and are expected to generate funds on your own. But I think states like Kerala Maharashtra, Punjab, Gujarat should not be discriminated because they are developing states,” he added.

Delivering a lecture on ‘various indicators of economic development at state Level in India’ organised by the centre for public policy research (CPPR), Ranade said that Bihar showed more development than Gujarat and there was nothing much to indicate that the last few years have been exceptionally good years for Modi’s state.

“Gujarat has always been developing state. With the 1991 economic reforms, the entrepreneurial states like Gujarat, Maharashtra, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh have progressed much more than others,” he added.

He was in Kochi to inaugurate the centre for comparative studies at CPPR.

Ranade who has been associated with the World Bank for 18 years said that development can be rated in terms of growth and equity. “I would say that states and countries that have invested in primary education have shown even growth unlike others where there is 50% uneven growth. At the World Bank, we have studied this but are yet to understand how this is related to development,” he added.

Indian Express, September 7th 2013