223
in the three under-banked regions eastern, north-eastern and central. For all
these regions, the ratios have remained unduly low, so much so, for the north-
eastern the relative ratio has remained nearly one-sixth or the best performing
southern state, for the eastern region, nearly one-fourth, and for the central
region, roughly 40%.
Third, a more glaring picture that stands out is the feature of inter-state
disparities. Pitiably limited increases in the farm credit to agricultural SDP
ratios have occurred in a few known underdeveloped states of Bihar, West
Bengal and Uttar Pradesh. Bihar’s ratio had increased from 3.4% in 1995-96
to 6.6% in 2003-04, West Bengal’s from 2.5% to 4.3% and UP’s from 5.8%
to 11.1%. It is true that even in respect of these states, the increases in the
ratio have been somewhat more impressive: Bihar’s to 17.2% in 2010-11, West
Bengal’s 15.5% and Uttar Pradesh’s 19.2%.
Narrowing of Relative Disparities
This brings us to the second question as towhether the relative disparities
between regions and states have narrowed over years Table 8.7 presents a
summary picture of the scenario in this regard. With a view to measuring the
degree of narrowing of disparities, we have worked out the percentage spread
between the weaker regions, namely, eastern and central, as compared with
the relatively best performing regions, southern and northern (Table 8.6B).
The spread represents the percentage of credit to GSDP ratios of the best
performing regions to the ratio of weaker regions. A similar spread has been
worked out between the middle level, western region, and the best performing
regions. Key results are enumerated below.
Table 8.7: Spread Between Best Performing Regions and Laggard Regions in
Regard to Credit to GSDP Ratios
Part I: 1995-96 to 2003-04
Part II: 2004-05 to 2010-11
Ratio for
1995-96 1997-98 2000-01 2003-04 2004-05 2006-07 2008-09 2009-10
Southern Region
11.5
14.2
15.3
23.4
27.7
47.2
49.2
54.8
Northern Region
9.2
10.7
14.7
19.8
27.3
35.0
33.7
38.3
Eastern Region
2.7
2.4
3.4
5.2
7.1
12.2
13.5
15.1
Central Region
5.5
6.2
7.3
10.6
13.8
20.8
18.8
22.0
Western Region
9.9
10.4
14.9
12.8
17.9
28.3
31.0
26.7
Percentage Spread for the Above Years
Eastern to Southern 426
592
450
450
390
387
364
363
Eastern to Northern 341
446
432
381
385
287
250
254
Central to Southern
209
229
210
221
201
227
262
249
Central to Northern
167
173
201
187
198
168
179
174
Western to Southern 116
137
103
183
155
167
159
205
Western to Northern
93
103
99
155
153
124
109
143
