Thinking Citizen Blog — India (Part Three) Maharashtra — Mumbai Is The New York (Financial Capital) of India
Thinking Citizen Blog — Tuesday is Economics, Finance, and Business Day
Today’s Topic: India (Part Three) Maharashtra — Mumbai is the New York (financial capital) of India
In Part One, a general introduction to the Indian economy. In Part Two, Gujarat the western most state of India which is also the most industrialized, has the highest exports of any Indian state, and is the hub of the drug industry. Today, the state to the south of Gujarat along the coast of the Arabian Sea — Maharastra, the second most populous state of India — after Uttar Pradesh, which with a population of over 200 million would be the fifth most populous country in the world. Maharastra’s population of 112 million would rank it about 12th largest in the world in the ball park of Egypt, the Philippines, and the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
What are the most important things you know about Maharastra that the rest of us may be regrettably ignorant of and would delight to learn? I have barely scratched the surface. And in this case, that is a gross understatement. I desperately need all the help I can get.
Experts — please chime in. Correct, elaborate, elucidate.
A LITTLE CONTEXT: the Arabian Sea to the west, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh to the north, Chhatisgarh to the east and Goa, Karnataka and Telangana to the south
1. Mumbai is both the financial and commercial capital of India. At 14% of India’s GDP, Maharastra is the “biggest contributor to the Indian economy.” Mumbai is also the entertainment and fashion capital of India.
2. Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) Ranking of Indian states in trillions (“lakh core”) of rupees: Maharashtra (42.7), Tamil Nadu (31.6), Karnataka (28.1), Gujarat (27.9), Uttar Pradesh (25.0), West Bengal (18.8), Rajasthan (17.8), Telangana (16.5), Andra Pradesh (15.9), and Madya Pradesh (15.2), Kerala (13.1).
3. Maharashtra’s power generation capacity is roughly 48,000 MW with 24,000 MW coal, 19,000 renewables, 3000 gas.
THE AGRICULTURAL SECTOR IS VERY DEPENDENT ON THE MONSOON
1. “Although Maharashtra is a highly industrialized state, agriculture continues to be the main occupation of the state. Since most of the cultivable land is still rain-fed, the Southwest Monsoon season between June and September is critical to the food sufficiency and quality of life in the state.”
2. ”Any fluctuations in the time distribution, spatial distribution or quantity of the monsoon rains may lead to conditions of floods or droughts causing the agricultural sector to adversely suffer. This has a cascading effect on the secondary sectors, the overall economy, food inflation, and therefore the overall quality and cost of living for the general population.”
3. “Many areas in Western Maharashtra on the Deccan plateau such as eastern Pune district, Solapur, Sangli, Satara, and Ahmadnagar the Marathwada region are particularly prone to drought. “
NB: “Just like the rest of India, land holdings tend to remain small and the percent of marginal farmers (landholding of less than 1.0 hectare (2.5 acres) was 43%. The average holding overall size groups was under three hectares.” “Recent years have seen a huge increase in farmers committing suicide in Maharashtra because of indebtedness from monsoon failure, climate change, and at times cost of growing crops being higher than the market price. The cause of suicide has been linked in some studies to inability to loans mostly taken from banks and NBFCs (non-banking financial companies) to purchase expensive seeds and fertilizers, often marketed by foreign MNCs (multinational corporations).”
THE CEREMONIAL HEAD OF MAHARASTRA IS THE GOVERNOR (CP Radhakrishnan), THE DE FACTO HEAD OF GOVERNMENT IS THE CHIEF MINISTER (Eknath Shinde, below)
1. Shinde is head of the “Shiv Sena” described by Wikipedia as “a right-wing Marathi regionalist and Hindu ultranationalist political party in India founded in 1966 by Bal Thackeray.”
2. The Shiv Sena was allied with Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) from 1984 to 2019
3. Bal Thackeray (1926–2012), while a founder of the Shiv Sena, he “did not hold any official positions, and he was never formally elected as the leader of his party.” He was a cartoonist who founded the Marathi weekly Marmik in 1960 and the daily Saamana in 1988.
Economy of Maharashtra — Wikipedia
Government of Maharashtra — Wikipedia
States of India by installed power capacity — Wikipedia
QUOTE OF THE MONTH
“Make your own Bible. Select and collect all the words and sentences that in all your readings have been to you like the blast of a trumpet.”
- Ralph Waldo Emerson
My spin — then periodically review, re-rank, and exchange your list with those you love. I call this the “Orion Exchange” because seven is about as many as any human can digest at a time. Game?
ATTACHMENTS BELOW:
#1 A graphic guide to justice (9 metaphors on one page).
#2 “39 Songs, Prayers, and Poems: the Keys to the Hearts of Seven Billion People” — Adams House Senior Common Room Presentation, (11/17/20)
NB: Palestine Orion (Decision) — let’s exchange Orions, let’s find Rumi’s field (“Beyond all ideas of right and wrong, there is a field. Meet me there” Rumi, 13 century Persian Sufi mystic)
THE LAST FOUR YEARS OF POSTS ORGANIZED THEMATICALLY INTO FOURTEEN BOOK-LENGTH PDFs:
PDF with headlines — Google Drive
YOUR TURN — Please share:
a.) the coolest thing you learned this week related to business, economics, finance.
b.) the coolest thing you learned in your life related to business, economics, finance.
c.) anything at all related to business, economics, finance.
d.) anything at all
