North India Vs South India

I have often heard South Indians berating North Indians for not contributing to India’s economy and North Indians feeling all “Madrasis” eat idli-dosa 24/7, 365 days of the year and get all the plum Government jobs :). North Indians also feel South Indians are very intelligent and South Indians feel Hindi is being imposed on them by the “Punjabis”. As you can see the discussion is about North and South India….. Mumbai is considered to be a different world and Kolkata is all about Rosogolla and fish.

Odisha is known for its Odissi dance and the Jagannath Mandir. Bihar for lawlessness and Lalu Yadav. North Eastern states were nearly forgotten till 2014 when Mr. Modi ensured that they were brought into the limelight and integrated fully into India. Till 2014, only the armed forces knew about the North Eastern states. Just a terrible legacy of the first Prime Minister of India and his dynasty.

India has come a long way since “those” days. We now have young Manipuri men making the world’s best dosas in its native land of TamilNadu. Bihari farm workers till the fields near Tirunelveli without knowing a word of Tamil as they are recent migrants. Tamilians like me who speak Hindi better than many North Indians. The not-so-cultured “Punjabis” who have “settled” in sleepy Bangalore to help the city overtake Chennai’s population. South Indians competing with Bihar in voting for utterly incompetent and corrupt politicians.

….The best change of all – Uttar Pradesh’s GDP moving to the third position !!

North India Vs South India

Recently I came across a fantastic thread by Kishore Iyer on this whole North-South divide. Am reposting it here and the link to the thread is – North Vs South India.

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As a Bharathiya I do not believe in regionalism, I belong to Tamil Nadu as much as I belong to Manipur or Gujarat. I definitely do not like the way people from the south put down states from the North or the way people from the North look down up on people from the South Because if you look at it closely there isn’t a lot to give or take between states. People definitely over do the “Under developed Hindi belt” Vs “Developed South”. 

All this analysis/conclusions have been drawn from “RBI’s hand book of statistics on Indian states” GSDP Current prices (base 2012) (FY12 to FY20)

– The top 10 states as on FY20 – MH, TN, UP, GJ, KA, WB, RJ, AP, TS and MP & all of them put together are ~146 lakh crores which is ~70% of the country’s GDP. The top 10 have contributed ~70% of the country’s GDP (10 yr avg) 

– Prior to FY16 KL was in the top 10 but post that it was replaced by MP and KL hasn’t been able to break into the top 10 since then (reason well known)

-Since FY12 the top three states have always been MH, TN and UP. 4th & the 5th spots have been oscillating between GJ & KA. -The top 5 have contributed 46% of the country’s GDP 

-From FY12 to FY20, Amongst the top 10 states MP has shown the max growth at 14.6% followed by KA at 13.2%. This shows how MP has moved into the top 10 and how KA has traded places with GJ. 

– The top three economies MH, TN and UP have grown at 10.4%, 11.5% and 11.2% respectively

– The top 10 states have grown at 11.8% (FY12 to FY20) Vs 11.6% of the top 5, the rest of the states have grown only at 11.1% during the same period 

-The avg inflation during this period was ~6% and the real growth rate of the top economies were at 5.8%. 

This was the growth rate when the economy was deleveraging, GST & DeMon happened, RERA, IBC was enacted and the NPA mess unfolded. This is commendable! 

-As an extension if you check out the GSDP numbers (base FY05) the top 10 economies grew at 15.4% along with an average inflation rate of ~8.4% and a growth rate of ~7%. This was the growth rate where you had huge leverage in play & not healthy 

-Amongst the top 10 states TN is the one that has experienced maximum inflation in the time period between FY14 to FY21 and Gujarat and Uttar Pradesh have had the lowest

So, if you look closely there isn’t much to give or take between the states and each of these states have offered something to the country’s growth.
I can puncture either of the jingoistic arguments “South better North” or “North better than South” But I do not wish to do it! 

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BLOT – All Indians are contributing to the growth of India whatever be the language they speak or wherever they live on this blessed land.

Note : Will blog next on the other “stupid” debate about Aryans Vs Dravidians and the myth of an Aryan Invasion.