Punjab economy a victim of neglect & populism

PUNJAB was the top performing state in terms of economic growth and per capita income from the early 1970s to the early 1990s. Agriculture was its major growth driver. But the state could not translate the splendid success of the Green Revolution into development in other sectors of the economy. This is amply demonstrated by the state’s slowdown in both overall and sectoral growth rates over the past four decades. The slipping of Punjab's economy in comparison to the national average growth rate and some other states began in the early 1990s, a time when agriculture, too, had started experiencing fatigue. The decade-long militancy of the 1980s not only changed the state's orientation from development to law and order but also had an adverse impact on the investment climate and, thereby, on the quantum and quality of investment.