Uttar Pradesh Economy and State Budget: Exam Notes

Uttar Pradesh is the most populous state of India and one of the largest state economies in the country. Its wealth rests on a very broad base of agriculture, on crafts and small industry spread across its districts, and increasingly on the manufacturing and services that have gathered near Delhi. For examinations the chapter divides neatly into three: what the state grows, what its districts make, and how its budget is framed and passed.

Agriculture and irrigation

Agriculture still supports the largest share of the working population. Uttar Pradesh is the largest producer of sugarcane and of sugar in India, the largest producer of wheat, the largest producer of foodgrains taken together, the largest producer of potato and the largest producer of milk among the states. The state is divided for planning purposes into nine agro-climatic zones, which is a favourite figure in state papers. Western Uttar Pradesh, with Meerut, Muzaffarnagar, Saharanpur and Bijnor, is the sugarcane belt and the most prosperous farming tract; eastern Uttar Pradesh is a rice and sugarcane region with very small holdings; and Bundelkhand in the south, with its thin soils and uncertain rain, grows pulses and oilseeds and remains the weakest region of the state. Uttar Pradesh has the largest irrigated area of any Indian state. Canal irrigation goes back to the Upper Ganga Canal, opened in 1854 from Haridwar and designed by the engineer Proby Thomas Cautley, and later to the Lower Ganga Canal, the Sharda Canal and the Ramganga system; in modern times, however, it is tube wells that water the greatest part of the cropped area.

Industries and crafts, district by district

The state has few minerals of its own, so its industry grew around crops, crafts and markets. Examiners test the district pairs almost every year.

The One District One Product programme, launched by the state government in January 2018, was built on exactly these pairings; it gives each district a flagship product and supports its artisans with credit, design help and marketing.

Infrastructure, power and the defence corridor

Road building has been the most visible change of the last two decades, and the expressways are the work of the Uttar Pradesh Expressways Industrial Development Authority. The Yamuna Expressway runs from Greater Noida to Agra, the Agra-Lucknow Expressway carries the link further east, the Purvanchal Expressway joins Lucknow to Ghazipur, the Bundelkhand Expressway joins Chitrakoot to Etawah, and the Ganga Expressway from Meerut to Prayagraj is the longest of the series. A new international airport is being developed at Jewar in Gautam Buddha Nagar. In power, the southern district of Sonbhadra carries the Rihand dam, whose reservoir is called Govind Ballabh Pant Sagar, together with the Obra and Anpara thermal stations, which is why the district is described as the energy capital of the state; the Narora Atomic Power Station stands in Bulandshahr. The Defence Industrial Corridor announced for the state has six nodes, at Lucknow, Kanpur, Jhansi, Chitrakoot, Aligarh and Agra.

How the state budget is framed and passed

The budget of Uttar Pradesh is not a document of the executive alone; the Constitution lays down each step, and questions are asked straight from the articles.

A money bill can be introduced only in the Vidhan Sabha and only on the recommendation of the Governor. The Vidhan Parishad, being the upper house, may discuss it and suggest changes but can hold it for no more than fourteen days, after which it is deemed passed. No money may leave the Consolidated Fund of the State without an Appropriation Act, and the accounts are audited by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India, whose report the Governor lays before the legislature. The state works within the limits set by the Uttar Pradesh Fiscal Responsibility and Budget Management Act of 2004. Its own revenue comes chiefly from the state goods and services tax, state excise, stamp duty and registration fees and taxes on vehicles, and to that is added the state's share of central taxes as recommended by the Finance Commission.