Cheema releases book of statistics ‘Punjab State at a Glance 2022’

Chandigarh: Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Taxation Minister Harpal Singh Cheema on Monday released the ‘Punjab State at a Glance 2022’, a collection of important statistical data of various departments compiled by the Directorate of Statistics, department of Planning. This single volume handy book carries authentic data on all important items relating to different sectors of Punjab economy besides reflecting the latest available data on important socio-economic indicators of Punjab economy.

Releasing the book here at Punjab Bhawan, Finance Minister Harpal Singh Cheema directed the officials of the Planning department to ensure the availability of this book in the libraries of universities and colleges of the state. He said that this book would be useful for research institutions, universities, colleges, government and non-government institutions, and policy makers and administrators for development, research policy decisions and other important decisions. He congratulated the department of Planning for putting their sincere efforts in compiling this book.

Sharing key data from the book, Advocate Cheema said that the agriculture and allied sectors are expected to grow by 3.70 percent, industry by 4.33 percent and services sector by 6.78 percent as per advance estimates of 2022-23. “As compared to agriculture in general, the allied sectors are showing faster growth over the recent years. Livestock sector with rapid growth is becoming major contributor to the growth of Agriculture and Allied sector. Livestock sector is likely to grow by 4.18 percent in 2022-23”, said Finance Minister while adding that Livestock sector’s share in total Gross State Value Added (GSVA) of Punjab was 11.1 percent during 2022-23.

Divulging further, Cheema said that the per capita income of Punjab is expected to Rs. 1,73,873 in 2022-23 as per advance estimates as compared to Rs.1,70,620 at national level. He said that the state inflation figures were also remained below than those at National level with few exceptions. The Inflation was at the peak in the month of April 2022 and showed a downward trend in next few months with the exception in June 2022. It remained benign till October when it touches the bottom with 4.5% but it started upward trend in November and December 2022, he added.

Cheema said that Punjab has large chunk of working population between the age of 15-64 which stood at 70.15 percent of total population in 2021. “26.11 percent of this belongs to the youth group in the age of 15-29 years. It is both an advantage as well as a challenge for the state”, said the Finance Minister while adding that the Punjab Government led by Chief Minister Bhagwant Mann has taken many initiatives to provide good education and better job opportunities to channelise youth energy under the mission ‘Rangla Punjab’.

Thanking the Finance Minister for releasing this book, Vikas Pratap, Principal Secretary Planning, said that the source agencies of the sectoral data contained in this book has been indicated under each table. He gave assurance to the minister that the department would soon provide this book to the universities and colleges of the state besides making its e-book available for all on the website of the department.

Prominent amongst others, Rakesh Kumar, Joint Secretary Planning, Sumit Kumar, Director Planning and Jagdeep Singh, Director Statistics were also present in the meeting.