Firdous Hassan
Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir is among the bottom seven states and union territories that witnessed a slowdown in the manufacturing sector due to the Covid -19 last year.
Economic survey 2021 tabled in parliament on Friday reveals that the slowdown in the manufacturing sector poses a risk in the economic recovery of the union territory.
The GVA shock intensity – measured as each state’s share in the Gross State Value Added (GSVA) – on the union territory’s manufacturing sector in 2019-20 was a mere 9.4 percent.
Gross value added (GVA) is an economic productivity metric that measures the contribution of a corporate subsidiary, company to an economy, producer, sector, or region.
At all India level, the manufacturing sector share in the country’s GVA was 17.4 percent. The GSVA shock intensity on Jammu and Kashmir’s agriculture, which had the least affected due to the Covid-19 was 15 percent.
The survey claims that the share of the service sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s GSVA was 57.1 percent, while the same on the construction sector was 8.3 percent last year.
Comparing to the neighboring states including Himachal Pradesh (30 %) , Punjab(14.5 %) and New Delhi, the share of the manufacturing sector in Jammu and Kashmir’s GSVA had declined by more than 50 percent.
Mizoram in north-eastern India has reported the lowest share of the manufacturing sector in the state’s GSVA, which is 0.7 percent. Goa with 50.8 percent of the GVA shock intensity had least affected the manufacturing sector due to the covid -19 last year.
The economic survey claim that the service sector’s share in Jammu and Kashmir GVA 60.08 per cent last year, with growth of six percent in the last five years.
As per the economic survey, India is well on its path to a V-shaped recovery to pre-pandemic levels and beyond.
It states that the coordinated policy response on both health and economic fronts helped India to endure the pandemic-induced shocks this year.
The UT administration imposed a lockdown in Jammu and Kashmir after the outbreak of covid-19 pandemic. During the period, industries and other business units, which had already suffered due to shutdown in 2019 after the abrogation of article 370, remained closed.
A preliminary assessment conducted by the Kashmir Chamber of Commerce and Industries (KCCI) has pegged the business losses at over Rs 40,000 crore, while five lakh people have lost jobs from August 5 2019 last year to August 2020.
