Assessing the Infrastructure Performance of Indian States : A Normalized Approach

Infrastructure provides the necessary services that support economic growth by increasing the productivity of labours and capital, thereby reducing the costs of production and raising profitability, production, income and employment. Extensive and efficient infrastructure is critical for ensuring the effective functioning of any economy. However, the development of infrastructure and its growth may depend upon the peculiar priorities and performance of the State governments in a federal structure of government such as that of India. Some states have grown very fast while some have been sluggish in their infrastructure development, due to various reasons. In this context this study made an attempt to assess the performance of Indian States on infrastructure using the framework of inter-State analysis.The infrastructure performance of these States has been analysed using infrastructure density data i.e., service capacity created per unit service area or population and the growth performance through ‘quadrant analysis'. The assessment of Infrastructure performance of States has been done with reference to each infrastructure categories through the ranking of States in terms of levels over two time periods and growth. The States that have performed on both counts have further been categorised into top and bottom performers. The overall assessment of infrastructure density performance of States has been done subsequently by aggregating sector ranks and then categorising into top and bottom overall performers. These scores are also normalised within and across sectors to get indexed performance