West Bengal, the Indian remains of the famous province of 'Bengal' from British India is a state that has long been hailed as the birthplace of the Indian renaissance. A hundred years back Bengal showed the way for India in every walk of life. From the fight for independence to making movies, Bengal was at the forefront of everything. A simple example to explain this phenomenon would be a look into the fact that out of the 6 Indians ever to win the Nobel prize, 2 were Bengalis- Gurudev Rabindranath Tagore (Literature, 1913) and Amartya Sen (Economic Sciences, 1998) and 2 had their field of work primarily in Bengal - Mother Teresa (Peace, 1979) and C.V. Raman (Physics, 1930). The remaining 2 - R.K.Pachauri (for IPCC, Peace 2007) and Hargobind Khorana (Physiology or Medicine, 1968) had made their mark in their respective work-streams' outside India. In movie making too, before A.R.Rahman, Gulzar and Resul Pookutty it was the maestro filmmaker Satyajit Ray who had won an honorary Oscar in 1992 for his lifelong contribution to the art of film-making. Interestingly, he worked all his life on films that were in his native language Bengali, leave alone even the dominant hindi film industry of the country. The recently departed sitar legend Pandit Ravi Shankar had won the Grammy award thrice in 1967, 1972 and 2001 more than any Indian.
Coming out of 34 years of communist rule, the state is now being governed by the firebrand Mamata Bannerjee who though was a very effective leader of the opposition, is still struggling to find a strong foothold in governance and take smart steps to resolve the issues plaguing the state. But, I read ignorance of the fundamentals as the answer to most of the above 'Whys', and that is where the title of this post comes from. It is indeed a waste of resources that is taking this state down the wrong direction of the growth graph. I have tried to narrow down the explanation to the following aspects:
1) Population density - This one aspect sort of answers a lot of questions. When a city/ town has a very high population density then it becomes very difficult to sustain the growth of the resident population since the infrastructural needs for governance increase and so does the cost of it. Simply put, more people living in confined localities increase the need of improved water supplies, sanitation, policing and general administration. If these are not provided then they will be faced with health hazards such as epidemics, increased levels of organized crime and inadequate provision for education. Lack of proper infrastructure in densely populated urban areas often symbolizes informal dwelling or slums as they are called. Analysts have termed these dwellings as 'sprawling' and 'difficult to manage'. I picked this one up as the first and foremost issue affecting West Bengal since the statistics for this shocked me completely. According to the stats available for 'city propers' - cities with defined borders of administration on wikipedia out of the top 49 in that list India has 18 cities/townships. And out of the 18, 12 are in West Bengal only. Yes, you have heard it right. Let me summarize before your eyes start popping out and remain there. 12 towns/cities in West Bengal are amongst the top 50 densely populated 'city propers' in the World. Here is a table sampling the same stats.
# the rows highlighted in 'green' are towns/cities in West Bengal
The first question that may build up in your head is, when on earth did a Titagarh, Baranagar or Serampore et all become a city and that precisely is itself the answer to your question. The fact that these townships are in the list are itself the cause of concern. These places became municipalities for the convenience of administration since the population residing in these townships multiplied enormously. Now, with the surplus population in a smaller area, there will be pressure for the administration to work on basic infrastructural needs. With the challenges in the economy this isn't the most effective approach for governance. This brings me to the 2nd aspect.
2) The Fiscal issue - The fiscal picture in West Bengal is characterized by a high debt-gross state domestic product (GSDP) ratio which is the second highest in the country among the non-special category states and a low own tax revenue - GSDP ratio which is the lowest in the country.
The detailed economic explanation of this issue can be found in a Study - Fiscal Problem in West Bengal by Subhanil Chowdhury, a faculty member at the Institute of Development Studies in Kolkata.
Let us attempt to understand the consequences for these twin features which underlie the fiscal stress in the state at present. West Bengal's total financial debt stood at
191,835 crore (US$34.91 billion) as of 2011. Now the economic figure which controls the debt is the GSDP because that signifies not only the credit worthiness of the state but also its ability to repay the debt at a sustainable pace. The GDSP is the economic output of a state in terms of the value added by the goods and services produced by the state.This is direct representative of the revenue that the state earns via taxes on goods produced and traded within the state. In West Bengal's case the service industry (i.e. taxes recovered in revenue from private healthcare, hospitality, private education, information technology, banking and financial services, retail, construction and real estate etc.) contributes 57.8% of the GDSP. This compared to 24% contributed by the primary sector (i.e. agriculture, fishing and mining etc.) and 18.2% from industrial manufacturing. For detailed stats of the West Bengal economy Ref: the West Bengal economy page on Wikipedia. Another aspect is the expenditure of the state. Every month 83% of the revenue receipts are spent in paying salaries and pensions and 35% is needed to pay the interests of the debt that the state has. This figure clearly indicates the deficit that is being loaned every month just to run the state, leave alone development.
3) Lack of effective polity - West Bengal is one of the most important destination for trade and investments in India. The state is famous for its vast natural resources, availability of raw material, cheap workforce, and relatively good infrastructure. But here’s what one of the recent RBI reports said: “West Bengal, having a revenue deficit as well as a primary revenue deficit, indicated that the state could not contain its non-interest revenue expenditure and net borrowing has been used to finance current non-interest expenditure, with no potential scope for generating debt-financing income.” This simply means that the investments being made by the West Bengal polity in the last 3 to 4 decades have been mostly unrelated to the development of basic Private Public Partnerships (PPP) ventures. That is so because around 85% of revenue receipts have to be spent on committed expenditures like salaries, interest payments and subsidies, leaving little room for expenditure on development projects. The ruling party has been busy alluring and financing the political loyalties rather than create an effective strata of governance to facilitate growth and subsequent popularity of the polity. Sadly, things have not changed much since the famed 'Paribartan'. We are yet to see any policies for agricultural or industrial reform. West Bengal has done little to encourage private investment into the state. With a history of conflicts by the former government with the USA led policies and the present ruling party's legacy of conflicts with one of the largest corporate conglomerates of the country making the worst example of industrial land acquisition in the country, the state seems to have been stuck in a time warp without any signs of encouragement.
So much so for history. But, the question is, where is Bengal now? How is it doing today? I had grown up in Bengal amidst the famous saying from Gopal Krishna Gokhale - "What Bengal thinks today, India thinks tomorrow", but the reality today is - "What Bengal is doing today, India has done that day before yesterday". Why is that though West Bengal has a literacy rate of 77%, it still is the 7th poorest state in the country (as per current GDP). In terms of state debt, West Bengal is 3rd in the country after Maharashtra and Uttar Pradesh with a figure of 2116 billion. Though the infant mortality rate (IMR) in West Bengal is not the worst in India, the condition of healthcare in the state is not unknown to anyone. Why is that the state is ranked 19th in the country based on the Education Development Index (EDI) which comprises the aspects like access to education, infrastructure available and availability of teachers in all levels of education. Why is that West Bengal is 2nd in the country in terms of rape cases reported where 2,311 such incidents were reported in the last year. There are so many 'Why's' but very few constructive answers.
2116 billion. Though the infant mortality rate (IMR) in West Bengal is not the worst in India, the condition of healthcare in the state is not unknown to anyone. Why is that the state is ranked 19th in the country based on the Education Development Index (EDI) which comprises the aspects like access to education, infrastructure available and availability of teachers in all levels of education. Why is that West Bengal is 2nd in the country in terms of rape cases reported where 2,311 such incidents were reported in the last year. There are so many 'Why's' but very few constructive answers.Coming out of 34 years of communist rule, the state is now being governed by the firebrand Mamata Bannerjee who though was a very effective leader of the opposition, is still struggling to find a strong foothold in governance and take smart steps to resolve the issues plaguing the state. But, I read ignorance of the fundamentals as the answer to most of the above 'Whys', and that is where the title of this post comes from. It is indeed a waste of resources that is taking this state down the wrong direction of the growth graph. I have tried to narrow down the explanation to the following aspects:
1) Population density - This one aspect sort of answers a lot of questions. When a city/ town has a very high population density then it becomes very difficult to sustain the growth of the resident population since the infrastructural needs for governance increase and so does the cost of it. Simply put, more people living in confined localities increase the need of improved water supplies, sanitation, policing and general administration. If these are not provided then they will be faced with health hazards such as epidemics, increased levels of organized crime and inadequate provision for education. Lack of proper infrastructure in densely populated urban areas often symbolizes informal dwelling or slums as they are called. Analysts have termed these dwellings as 'sprawling' and 'difficult to manage'. I picked this one up as the first and foremost issue affecting West Bengal since the statistics for this shocked me completely. According to the stats available for 'city propers' - cities with defined borders of administration on wikipedia out of the top 49 in that list India has 18 cities/townships. And out of the 18, 12 are in West Bengal only. Yes, you have heard it right. Let me summarize before your eyes start popping out and remain there. 12 towns/cities in West Bengal are amongst the top 50 densely populated 'city propers' in the World. Here is a table sampling the same stats.
| World Rank | City Proper | Population | Area(sq.km.) | Density /sq.km. |
| 3 | Titagarh | 124,213 | 3.24 | 38,337 |
| 4 | Baranagar | 248,466 | 7.12 | 35,220 |
| 5 | Serampore | 197,857 | 5.88 | 33,649 |
| 7 | Delhi | 12,565,901 | 431 | 29,155 |
| 8 | South Dum Dum | 392,444 | 13.54 | 28,984 |
| 9 | Kamarhati | 314,507 | 10.96 | 28,696 |
| 10 | Kolkata | 5,138,208 | 185 | 27774 |
| 11 | Ahmedabad | 5,570,585 | 464 | 22,473 |
| 16 | Chennai | 4,616,639 | 181.04 | 25,501 |
| 23 | Mumbai | 13,830,884 | 603 | 22,937 |
| 24 | Jaigaon | 38,689 | 1.69 | 22,893 |
| 27 | Banupur | 11,647 | 0.52 | 22,398 |
| 28 | Bally | 260,906 | 11.81 | 22,092 |
| 29 | Balurghat | 135,737 | 6.37 | 21,309 |
| 37 | Howrah | 1,034,372 | 51.74/ | 19,992 |
| 42 | Naihati | 215,303 | 11.55 | 18,641 |
| 47 | Allahabad | 1,142,722 | 63.38[ | 18,030 |
| 48 | Panihati | 348,438 | 19.4 | 17,961 |
The first question that may build up in your head is, when on earth did a Titagarh, Baranagar or Serampore et all become a city and that precisely is itself the answer to your question. The fact that these townships are in the list are itself the cause of concern. These places became municipalities for the convenience of administration since the population residing in these townships multiplied enormously. Now, with the surplus population in a smaller area, there will be pressure for the administration to work on basic infrastructural needs. With the challenges in the economy this isn't the most effective approach for governance. This brings me to the 2nd aspect.
2) The Fiscal issue - The fiscal picture in West Bengal is characterized by a high debt-gross state domestic product (GSDP) ratio which is the second highest in the country among the non-special category states and a low own tax revenue - GSDP ratio which is the lowest in the country.
Let us attempt to understand the consequences for these twin features which underlie the fiscal stress in the state at present. West Bengal's total financial debt stood at
191,835 crore (US$34.91 billion) as of 2011. Now the economic figure which controls the debt is the GSDP because that signifies not only the credit worthiness of the state but also its ability to repay the debt at a sustainable pace. The GDSP is the economic output of a state in terms of the value added by the goods and services produced by the state.This is direct representative of the revenue that the state earns via taxes on goods produced and traded within the state. In West Bengal's case the service industry (i.e. taxes recovered in revenue from private healthcare, hospitality, private education, information technology, banking and financial services, retail, construction and real estate etc.) contributes 57.8% of the GDSP. This compared to 24% contributed by the primary sector (i.e. agriculture, fishing and mining etc.) and 18.2% from industrial manufacturing. For detailed stats of the West Bengal economy Ref: the West Bengal economy page on Wikipedia. Another aspect is the expenditure of the state. Every month 83% of the revenue receipts are spent in paying salaries and pensions and 35% is needed to pay the interests of the debt that the state has. This figure clearly indicates the deficit that is being loaned every month just to run the state, leave alone development.
So, what picture are these statistics painting for affairs of this state. If more than 50% of the state's income is coming from the services sector then it is an indication that privatization of basic needs of a citizen such as health and education are feeding the state treasuries. With an annual per capita income of 55,684 in the state (which incidentally is lower than even the north eastern states like Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh & Nagaland) it is a burden for the middle and lower income class in the state to afford these expensive services. Now, if there had been more income of the state from industries or agriculture that would in turn help increase the per capita income of the state which would have caused lesser inflation and inflicted lesser pain to the population. Another interesting fact is that though a survey by NASSCOM–Gartner ranks the West Bengal power infrastructure the best in the country, out of the 22 formally approved Special Economic Zones (SEZs) 17 are dedicated to IT or ITes firms.
55,684 in the state (which incidentally is lower than even the north eastern states like Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh & Nagaland) it is a burden for the middle and lower income class in the state to afford these expensive services. Now, if there had been more income of the state from industries or agriculture that would in turn help increase the per capita income of the state which would have caused lesser inflation and inflicted lesser pain to the population. Another interesting fact is that though a survey by NASSCOM–Gartner ranks the West Bengal power infrastructure the best in the country, out of the 22 formally approved Special Economic Zones (SEZs) 17 are dedicated to IT or ITes firms.3) Lack of effective polity - West Bengal is one of the most important destination for trade and investments in India. The state is famous for its vast natural resources, availability of raw material, cheap workforce, and relatively good infrastructure. But here’s what one of the recent RBI reports said: “West Bengal, having a revenue deficit as well as a primary revenue deficit, indicated that the state could not contain its non-interest revenue expenditure and net borrowing has been used to finance current non-interest expenditure, with no potential scope for generating debt-financing income.” This simply means that the investments being made by the West Bengal polity in the last 3 to 4 decades have been mostly unrelated to the development of basic Private Public Partnerships (PPP) ventures. That is so because around 85% of revenue receipts have to be spent on committed expenditures like salaries, interest payments and subsidies, leaving little room for expenditure on development projects. The ruling party has been busy alluring and financing the political loyalties rather than create an effective strata of governance to facilitate growth and subsequent popularity of the polity. Sadly, things have not changed much since the famed 'Paribartan'. We are yet to see any policies for agricultural or industrial reform. West Bengal has done little to encourage private investment into the state. With a history of conflicts by the former government with the USA led policies and the present ruling party's legacy of conflicts with one of the largest corporate conglomerates of the country making the worst example of industrial land acquisition in the country, the state seems to have been stuck in a time warp without any signs of encouragement.
4) Break-down of the social stardom -Bengali's as I mentioned at the beginning of the post, were the stars of the nation. Since the British made Calcutta (now Kolkata) their base, it became the nucleus of the western influence in pre-independent India. This did a world of good for a lot of talented Bengalis back then and they got recognition on the world stage even when the country was under the British monarchy. However, this phase also sowed the seeds of the false feel of superiority within the Indian social strata among the Bengali population. What it also brought was the security of being content in being a subaltern and contrarily took pride in being the best one at that. 60 years after the independence, Bengalis' still bask in the glory of the hay days of the past century and have made little progress in creating local legends thereafter. You may say that I am being unfaithful to my way of writing i.e. by not supporting these statements with relevant stats or information. And that I run the risk of these being labelled as a mere perception. But, the very fact that one party or rather a coalition could rule this state for 34 years at a stretch is proof to the fact that Bengal has an unrelenting reluctance to change their subsistence under one overseer. A more recent example would be another statistic around the industrial investment made in the state in the last year. According to the latest report on the country's industrial scenario released by the Department of Industrial Policy and Promotion, falling under the Union Ministry of Commerce and Industry, in 2011 West Bengal received fresh industrial investments of a mere 325 crore which is the lowest investment figure of the past three years, well below the 1,163 crore the state received in 2010 and the 632 crore of 2009. After the recent change of power in the state, the industrial community had poured in with fresh investments proposals worth over 3.03 lakh crore via Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandums (IEM). (IEMs are formal investment documents which industrialists need to submit to the Secretariat of Industrial Assistance under the Commerce ministry to set up or expand industries in the country.) This was said said to be the highest number of proposals received by the state since 1992 and the realization of these proposals would have created 43,529 jobs. However, only 33 of the 135 IEMs were translated into reality with total investments on this count standing at a paltry as mentioned 325 crore. So what is that Bengal is proud of today. Why do they still consider themselves as the superstars of nowhere-land? Why are Bengalis basking in the glory of pseudo-success when the fact remains that the distructs of Purulia, 24 South Parganas, Jalpaiguri, West Midnapur, South Dinajpur, Bankura, North Dinajpur and Birbhum are still in the list of the top 50 poorest districts of the country.
If Bengal has to rise tomorrow, it has to hit the 'F5' button, refresh everything and start afresh. There needs to be considerable effort to first restore then rebuild and finally that will bring in a revival. It will be slow but if undertaken with an honest approach it is bound to provide rich dividends for the state. The emptier the trash cans i.e. the lesser it wastes valuable intellect and resources, the brighter will be West Bengal's future.
325 crore which is the lowest investment figure of the past three years, well below the 1,163 crore the state received in 2010 and the 632 crore of 2009. After the recent change of power in the state, the industrial community had poured in with fresh investments proposals worth over 3.03 lakh crore via Industrial Entrepreneur Memorandums (IEM). (IEMs are formal investment documents which industrialists need to submit to the Secretariat of Industrial Assistance under the Commerce ministry to set up or expand industries in the country.) This was said said to be the highest number of proposals received by the state since 1992 and the realization of these proposals would have created 43,529 jobs. However, only 33 of the 135 IEMs were translated into reality with total investments on this count standing at a paltry as mentioned 325 crore. So what is that Bengal is proud of today. Why do they still consider themselves as the superstars of nowhere-land? Why are Bengalis basking in the glory of pseudo-success when the fact remains that the distructs of Purulia, 24 South Parganas, Jalpaiguri, West Midnapur, South Dinajpur, Bankura, North Dinajpur and Birbhum are still in the list of the top 50 poorest districts of the country.If Bengal has to rise tomorrow, it has to hit the 'F5' button, refresh everything and start afresh. There needs to be considerable effort to first restore then rebuild and finally that will bring in a revival. It will be slow but if undertaken with an honest approach it is bound to provide rich dividends for the state. The emptier the trash cans i.e. the lesser it wastes valuable intellect and resources, the brighter will be West Bengal's future.
where bhaat-ghum (afternoon siesta) is the norm, progress is difficult.. but then naps are supposed to be good for health.. it's a crazy situation!
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