Vijayawada: Banners, flexis and hoardings were filled up with Nava Nirmana Deeksha declarations on M.G. Road. What caught the eye of the people was the government's new propaganda efforts of managing to achieve per capita income of Rs 1.67 crore by the year 2050.
The Chief Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu has given a new direction to his vision of making the state as one of the best in the world and has come up with the new idea.
Earlier, in his vision document, Mr Naidu used to repeatedly say that he is working towards making the state one of the best three states in the country by 2022. Tt was then aimed to be the best state in the country and by 2029 one of the most favourite destinations in the world.
Now the vision of Mr Naidu is redefined into per capita figures which were being highlighted in all advertising bill boards. The posters read as ‘by 2022 the state’s per capita income has to be '2.95 lakh and by the year 2029 it has to reach a whopping figure of Rs 1.67 crore.
These claims led to interesting discussions on the possibility of achieving it. The present per capita income is Rs 1.22 lakh in 2016-17 which has recorded an increase of 13.14 per cent from '1.08 lakh in 2015-16 according to the economic survey.
The vice-chairman of Andhra Pradesh planning commission, C. Kutumbarao, has claimed that these are simple figures as the growth rates are calculated on compound basis.
If the per capita income is calculated with present growth rates, achieving Rs 1.67 crore shoiuld not be an impossible task, he said.
However achieving Rs 1.67 crore even by 2050 is an ambition that is far from reality, according to other economists.
Dr. L.S.N. Prasad, a retired professor of Hindu College who has also worked with the World Bank, has said that no economist in the world can forecast per capita income of any state or nation over a period spanning around 30 years. He said the figures are only for the sake of presenting some data without any logic or technicality involved.
