Punjab's agriculture expected to grow by 3.70 per cent: Minister
Darpan News Desk IANS, 10 Apr, 2023 09:58 AM
Chandigarh, April 10 (IANS) Punjab Finance Minister Harpal Cheema on Monday said agriculture and allied sectors in the state are expected to grow by 3.70 per cent, industry by 4.33 per cent and services sector by 6.78 per cent, as per advance estimates of 2022-23.
"As compared to agriculture in general, the allied sectors are showing faster growth over the recent years," he said while quoting 'Punjab State at a Glance 2022', a collection of important statistical data, which was released here.
The livestock sector, he said, with rapid growth is becoming a major contributor to the growth of the agriculture and allied sector.
"The livestock sector is likely to grow by 4.18 per cent in 2022-23," Cheema said, while adding the livestock sector's share in total Gross State Value Added (GSVA) of Punjab was 11.1 per cent during 2022-23.
He said the per capita income of Punjab is expected to be Rs 1,73,873 in 2022-23 as per advance estimates compared to Rs 1,70,620 at the national level. State inflation figures were also remained below than those at the national level with few exceptions.
The inflation was at its peak in April 2022 and showed a downward trend in the next few months with the exception in June 2022. "It remained benign till October when it touched the bottom with 4.5 per cent but it started an upward trend in November and December 2022."
Cheema said Punjab has a large chunk of working population in the age of 15-64 years, which stood at 70.15 per cent of the total population in 2021. "A total of 26.11 per cent of them belong to the age of 15-29 years. It is both an advantage as well as a challenge for the state," said the Finance Minister, while adding the government has taken initiatives to provide good education and better job opportunities to channelise the youth energy under the mission 'Rangla Punjab'.
Thanking the Finance Minister for releasing the book, Vikas Pratap, Principal Secretary Planning, said the source agencies of the sectoral data contained in this book has been indicated under each table.
The single volume handy book carries data on all important items relating to different sectors of Punjab economy, besides reflecting the latest available data on important socio-economic indicators of Punjab's economy.
Interacting with the mediapersons here, the Chief Minister, accompanied by his Delhi counterpart Arvind Kejriwal, said the state government is working on a multi-pronged strategy and has already roped in agriculture experts and the farmers unions for working out a viable solution for this problem.
Around 810 km of metro line are operational in 20 cities in the country while more than 980 km of metro network and RRTS is currently under construction in 27 cities, Union Minister for Housing and Urban Affairs Hardeep Puri said on Friday, adding India currently has the fifth-largest metro network in the world.
The ministers said according to the data till date many cities of Haryana are in the first 10 cities in the list of the most polluted cities in India, including Hisar, Faridabad, Sirsa, Rohtak, Sonepat and Bhiwani, etc., while from Punjab, no city is in the first 10.
Punjab Police chief Gaurav Yadav said local shopkeeper, Sandeep Singh Sunny, has been arrested for firing at and killing the Shiv Sena leader, while terming the incident as unfortunate.
Announcing the eye check-up camps here on Thursday, United Sikh Mission Chairman Rashpal Singh Dhindsa said this "mission for vision" is a selfless act of serving the community and this year, already seven camps have been organised in Ferozepur, Sangrur, Barnala, Kapurthala, Jalandhar and Mohali districts beginning October 15.
Those arrested have been identified as Gurwinder Singh, alias Mehak (27), Gursewak Singh, alias Sewak (25), and Manjit Singh, alias Soni (34). The trio, arrested from Gurdaspur, were actively involved in a high-level trans-border and inter-state drug smuggling.
