Tamil Nadu ranked one of the best performing states: ASSOCHAM

Ahead of its Global Investors Meet scheduled this May, Tamil Nadu got a booster dose on Sunday with industry lobby body ASSOCHAM ranking the state as one of the best performers in the country.

In a statement issued on Sunday, the Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM), based on its study, said: "Tamil Nadu has ranked among the best performing states in terms of eight out of nine development parameters like economy, power, roads and health while Kerala was a pleasant surprise on the second spot."

But for education, Tamil Nadu remained among the best performing states (BPS) in all other parameters. Kerala was BPS in overall development, income and removing inequality, health, roads and overall development, ASSOCHAM said.

The data relating to these parameters used in the ASSOCHAM Study on States' Emergence study related to 2009-2011 and 2012-14.

Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar and West Bengal were the BPS in four each of the nine parameters while Uttar Pradesh, Haryana, Karnataka, Haryana, Maharashtra and Odisha scored three of the BPS criteria.

Significantly, in three of their BPS criteria, Odisha and West Bengal had two related to roads and availability of electricity, the two most important factors which can make them favourites among the investors in the industrials.

"Both these states, now need to put in place a favourable investment climate through policy interventions on land acquisition and other clearances and they could do much better," ASSOCHAM president Rana Kapoor was quoted as saying in the statement.

In terms of income and equality, Kerala, Telangana, Haryana, Himachal Pradesh, Andhra Pradesh, and even Punjab did well.

In this criteria, the worst performing states were Assam, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Jammu and Kashmir and Chhattisgarh.

In industrial development, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Maharashtra, Karnataka, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh were among the BPS. In the area of ensuring health for its people, those scoring were Kerala, West Bengal, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, and Karnataka.

In the crucial area of road connectivity, Assam, Bihar, Kerala, Odisha, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal were the best.

For income equality, the ASSOCHAM study considered per capita income, base and its growth, monthly per capita consumption expenditure. For health, factors like infant mortality rate, health infrastructure and government expenditure on health development were taken into account, while for industrial development, it was the number of industrial entrepreneurs and MSME entrepreneur memoranda.