Gross Domestic Product is defined as the total value of all final goods produced within a specified geographical area in a given year. The domestic product estimates provide an insight of how the economy of an area is developing.

 

Such estimates are usually prepared by the Central Statistical Organization at the country level and also at the Sate level. However, estimates of GDP at much finer level such as the district in India are not available. Such estimates wherever available at the district level, have merely been an academic exercise. Both the Central Statistical Organization (CSO) and the various state governments’ statistical and planning departments have only attempted such exercise as pilots. The importance of GDP at the district level in understanding the economy as well as planning for the future is hardly arguable, whether for the government or the industry. 

 

 

 

While the methodology has been developed, discussed and debated, estimated have not been attempted. Poor quality of data has been one primary reason for this. However, recent information technology initiatives have brought a host of district level data to the public domain. Time series and quick updates have ensured availability of consistent data at the district level. This prompted us to attempt estimating the district level GDP across sectors for the first time in 2007. The first set of estimates for 2006-07 received considerable appreciation from the industry and the government. Organizations such as the RBI, 13th Finance Commission, and others appreciated the effort and also provided us with critical inputs.

 

After incorporating the various suggestions, we now provide you with a complete series on the district level gross domestic product. This volume thus provides you with Gross Domestic Product at current prices as well as at 1999-00 prices for all 593 districts (according to Census 2001) in India for the years 2001-02 to 2007-08. These estimates are not only for the overall GDP but also provide sectoral details of GDP. Other indicators such as per worker GDP and per capita GDP have also been provided for each sector. 

 

This database provides the estimates at the district, state and All India levels. The state and All India estimates are from the GDP figures released by the Central Statistical Organisation. For some of the UT's namely Daman and Diu, Dadra and Nagar Haveli and Lakhsadeep the CSO does not provide the data. For these UT's we also do not provide the data. Thus the aggregate of all the districts or of all the states will not sum up to the All India GDP figure. 

 

Further, the district data presented here is rounded off at one decimal point. Thus, the aggregate of district’s total will not match the State Figures. The CSO from time to time revises the GDP estimates as much better information flows in from the various sources. This new series on GDP estimates from the year 2001-02 to 2007-08 has been based on the current release of the GDP figures by the CSO. Also, many suggestions provided by users have been incorporated in the methodology. Thus past district level GDP may not tally with the current estimates. However, the past data has a very high correlation with the current data.

 

The CSO follows a combination of the income and “value-added” approach in estimating the GDP at the state level. The approach for various sectors is based on the availability of data. In our estimation of the DDP we have restricted ourselves to the value of production estimation. The obvious reason is that the data regarding inputs and stocks is inconsistent. Even estimating the value of production was a challenge.

 

 

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