Standard System and Bottlenecks to Growth in the Indian Economy: A Study Based on Input-Output Tables (93-94)

The standard system is in balanced standard proportions, which permit growth without bottlenecks. This study estimates the standard system in the Indian Economy from the input-output tables prepared by the CSO, and use the standard proportions to identify sectors that are a bottleneck to 10% growth of the economic system. The study identifies 26 such sectors, of which 10 appear to be serious bottlenecks, with shortages of more than 1% of the total available resources in 1993-4. Crude oil with a shortage of 15.5%, coal with 13.6%, electricity with 3.8%, inorganic heavy chemicals with 3.3%, fertilisers with 2.6%, pesticides with 2.1% are some of the serious bottleneck sectors. Groundnuts, paper and animal services with about 2% shortfalls appear to be other serious cases of shortfalls at 10% growth rate.