Bihar, Odisha and Uttar Pradesh, apart from seven other states, are the “least developed” Indian states, while Gujarat, whose model of development and industrialisation is a raging debate across the country following Narendra Modi’s rise in national politics, is among the “less developed” ones, according to a report submitted by a six-member committee headed by RBI governor Raghuram Rajan.

The committee was set up in May to measure backwardness of states.

The “relatively developed” category of states comprises Haryana, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa.

According to finance minister P Chidambaram, the report was submitted on Thursday, and prime minister Manmohan Singh subsequently directed the finance ministry to examine the panel’s recommendations and take action accordingly.

The committee, formed amid rising demands for ‘special category’ status by states, has suggested that the Centre should look at two aspects while allocating funds to a state: the state’s development needs and its development performance.

“The committee has recommended that each state may get a fixed basic allocation of 0.3 percent of overall funds, to which will be added its share stemming from need and performance to get its overall share,” Chidambaram said. 

The finance minister also said that the committee had devised a multi-dimensional index to measure a state’s backwardness based on its per capita consumption as measured by the National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), poverty ratio, and other such measures. “The committee has recommended that states that scores 0.6 and above on the index may be classified as ‘least developed’, states that score below 0.6 and above 0.4 may be classified as ‘less developed’, and states that score below 0.4 may be classified as ‘relatively developed’,” Chidambaram explained.

The states have been ranked as per their scores on the index and have been classified accordingly:

Least developed (with score 0.6 and above): Odisha, Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Arunachal Pradesh, Assam, Meghalaya, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan

Less developed (score between 0.6 and 0.4): Manipur, West Bengal, Nagaland, Andhra Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Mizoram, Gujarat, Tripura, Karnataka, Sikkim and Himachal Pradesh

Relatively developed (score below 0.4): Haryana, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Punjab, Tamil Nadu, Kerala and Goa.