| Economy and Industry |  |
Gujarat is one of the most prosperous states of India owing to its agricultural productivity and industrial development. The per capita GDP of Gujarat is 2.5 times the country’s average GDP. The state leads the country in various industrial sectors namely, textiles, engineering, chemicals, petrochemicals, drugs and pharmaceuticals, dairy, cement and ceramics, gems and jewellery.
In the past few years from 1994 to 2002, Gujarat’s State Domestic Product (SDP) has been rising continuously at an average growth rate of 12.4 % per annum. Ahmedabad, the largest city of Gujarat is also an industrial hub of India. The city is known for its textile mills and pharmaceutical industries. Some other important industrial centres of the state include Rajkot, Surat, Gandhinagar, Baroda and Jamnagar.
The state contributes to 21% of the country’s exports and 6.42% of the national GDP at constant prices. If the decadal growth of performance of some of the Indian states vis-ŕ-vis other Asian economies with that of Gujarat are compared, one gets quite an encouraging scenario. The industrial growth of Gujarat with a figure of 8.52% could be way ahead of many Indian states and other Asian giants like Singapore, Malaysia and Korea. |