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According to the 2008 Global Hunger Index, Punjab has the lowest level of hunger in India. Less than one-fourth of children below the age of five are underweight, although Punjab "came off worse than countries like Gabon and Vietnam when measured on the index".[1]
Punjab is considered to have the best infrastructure in India [2], this includes road, rail, air and river transport links that are extensive throughout the region. Punjab also has the lowest poverty rate in India at 6.16% (1999-2000 figures), and has won the best state performance award[3], based on statistical data compiled by the Indian Government.
This is a chart of trend of gross state domestic product of Punjab at market prices estimated by Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation with figures in millions of Indian Rupees. The traditional long-term financial policy of the Union Government is to reward well-performing States.
| Year | Gross State Domestic Product |
|---|---|
| 1980 | 50,250 |
| 1985 | 95,060 |
| 1990 | 188,830 |
| 1995 | 386,150 |
| 2000 | 660,100 |
| 2005 | 925,380[4] |
The state's debt was estimated at 62 per cent of its GDP in 2005.[5]
Punjab (the five rivers region) is one of the most fertile regions on earth. The region is ideal for wheat-growing. Rice, sugar cane, fruits and vegetables are also grown. Indian Punjab is called the "Granary of India" or "India's bread-basket." [2] It produces 20% of India's wheat, and 9% of India's rice. In worldwide terms, this represents 1/30th or 3% of the world's production of these crops, so Indian Punjab produces 2% of the world's cotton, 2% of its wheat and 1% of the world's rice.[2] The largest grown crop is wheat. Other important crops are rice, cotton, sugarcane, pearl millet, maize, barley and fruit. The principal crops of Punjab are barley, wheat, rice, maize and sugarcane. Among the fodder crops are bajra and jowar. The main sources of irrigation are canals and tube wells. The economy of the state primarily depends upon primary sector. The rabi or the spring harvest consists of wheat, gram, barley, potatoes and winter vegetables. The Kharif or the autumn harvest consists of rice, maize, sugarcane, cotton and pulses.
The state has essentially an agrarian economy with a lower industrial output as compared to other states of India. A prominent feature of the industrial scenario of the Punjab is its small sized industrial units. There are nearly 194,000 small scale industrial units in the state in addition to 586 large and medium units.
The industrial units in the state are broadly divided into three-
The state produces nearly 70% of the best quality cotton in India. In spite of several advantages, there is one major disadvantage that the total spindlage capacity of the state is only 1.5% of the country.
The cotton mills are located at Abohar, Malout, Phagwara, Amritsar, Kharar, Mohali and Ludhiana. Malerkotla, Abohar, Malout and Bhatinda are important for cotton ginning and pressing and nearly 25.3 mln (25,300,000) bales of cotton are pressed annually over here. About 97 million kilograms of yarn and 36.5 million metres of cloth were produced in the cotton textile mills of Punjab.
Overall textile production of Punjab is predictable at Rs.105000 Million, as well as Rs.32500 Million sell abroad of knitwear, shawls, made-ups (bed sheets, pillow cases, duvet covers, and curtains) and yarns. The direct and indirect employ of textile doings in the state of Punjab is predictable at 2 Million people. “Said Mr H.S.Cheema, Chairman, Punjab committee, Northern India Textile Mills Association (NITMA)”State of Punjab produces just about 1.8 to 2.2 million bales, about 11-12% of the country's production of cotton. But only 43% of the cotton yarns formed in Punjab is used within the states and remaining is sold outside the state. [6]
The sugar mills in Punjab are located at Batala, Gurdaspur, Bhogpur, Phagwara, Nawanshahr, Zira, Morinda, Rakhra, Dhuri, Fazilka, Nakodar, Dasua, Budhewal, Budhladha, Mukerian, Tarn Taran, Ajnala, Faridkot, Jagraon, Amloh, Patran and Lauhka.
One of the salient feature of the sugar industry is that out of the 14 mills, 12 are in the Co-operative sector and only 2 are privately owned. Compared to the state of Uttar Pradesh and some other Indian states, the size of the sugar mills in Punjab is small. The Co-operative sugar mill at Morinda is the biggest in the state with a daily crushing capacity of 4,000 tonnes of sugarcane.
The primary source of milk and other dairy products in the state is the buffalo. The state ranks at the top in the country in the availability of milk after Haryana and gujarat.
The milk plants are mainly located at Verka (Amristar district), Ludhiana, Mohali, Jalandhar, Patiala, Hoshiarpur, Gurdaspur, Ferozepur, Sangrur, Bhatinda, Faridkot, Nabha, Moga, Kot Kapura and Hamira. The plant at Moga is the biggest plant in the state with a processing capacity of nearly 435 thousand litres of milk.
About 27% of the total energy of the state is provided by the Ropar Thermal Plant while the Bhakra Nangal complex provided 20.3% of the total power for the state and the Guru Nanak Thermal plant at Bhatinda accounts for about 21% of the energy to the state. Other important sources of power are the Dehar Power plant (13%), Shanan Power house at Joginder Nagar (5%), Pong Power project (4%) and UBDC power houses (2%) Mukerian Hydel Project3%.
The common pool projects are the Bhakra Nangal Complex, the Dehar Power Plant and the Pong Power Plant. Punjab shares about 51% of the Power generated from the Bhakra Nangal Complex. 48% from the Power generated at the Pong Project.[7]
Punjab has the best infrastructure in all of India[2][8] and as a result it is becoming attractive to foreign companies looking for bases and manufacturing zones for their Indian operations. The Indian National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) has ranked Punjab's infrastructure as the best in India. Its road, rail, air and transport system is rated best in the country with ranking of 210 points[2] compared to the national average of 100 in NCAER's infrastructure index. It has highest per capita generation of electricity in India, which is 2.5 times the national average. All major cities in Punjab benefit from this and have some of the lowest tariff's in India. All of Punjab's villages have been electrified and connected to the state electrical power grid since 1974.
Source: NCAER & Punjab Government
The leading dailies in the state are Amar Ujala, Dainik Jagran, Dainik Bhaskar, Punjab Kesri, The Tribune, Jag Bani and Ajit Samachar.
About 1% of the S&P CNX 500 conglomerates have corporate offices in Punjab. This is a list of NSE-indexed conglomerates with corporate offices in Punjab. Figures are given in millions of Indian rupees for 2005.
| Rank | Conglomerate | Gross Income |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mahavir Spinning Mills | 19,376 |
| 2 | Punjab Tractors | 10,245 |
| 3 | Abhishek Industries | 7,537 |
| 4 | Nahar Spinning Mills | 4,687 |
| 5 | Nahar Exports | 4,293 |
| 6 | Vardhman Polytex | 2,955 |