State NITI Aayog report suggests major push for Chhattisgarh’s service sector

“The state GDP is Rs 5 lakh crore now… By 2047, we will take the state GDP to Rs 75 lakh crore,” CM Sai said.

Subramaniam, who also spoke at the event, said, “Social equity and human capital development are at the forefront with initiatives aimed at enhancing education, healthcare and skill development to empower our citizens.”

The industrial sector contributes about 45% of Chhattisgarh’s state GDP. The service sector contributes 35% and agriculture accounts for 20%. An excerpt from the report read, “The service sector is expected to expand rapidly, driven by growth in information technology, logistics and tourism.”

As per the report, Chhattisgarh presently ranks 19th in states with domestic tourist footfall and 28th in international tourist footfall. The report proposes giving the tourism industry benefits like reduced property tax rates, subsidised rates for electricity, water and land parcels, and others to push for its growth.

The state will work on promoting different types of tourism, such as eco, cultural, wellness, religious, heritage, and adventure, as well as meetings, incentives, conferences and exhibition (MICE) tourism, where modern venues will be offered at locations surrounded by natural beauty. The report, under each category of tourism, has short-listed several tourist spots that can be developed.

For connectivity, the report recommended turning Chhattisgarh’s capital city, Raipur, into an international airport with direct flights to the United States, Bangladesh and the United Kingdom.

The report also calls for expanding and upgrading roads, enhancing connectivity to 10 districts that currently have no direct railway connection, developing a range of ancillary services, local packaging hubs, 24/7 logistics operations, developing multi-modal logistics parks, specialised terminals and cold chain infrastructure.

Tapping low-cost land for IT and IT-enabled companies to establish and expand operations is also among the report’s proposals. There were also suggestions to make the state a hub for Hindi BPOs and artificial intelligence startups.