New Delhi: Four states, including Odisha, are at the bottom of the country’s minimum need list in 2019. Odisha, West Bengal, Jharkhand and Tripura are lagging behind across the country in providing essential necessities such as clean drinking water, housing, electricity, safe cooking fuel and so on. Similarly, Jharkhand and Kerala, along with Odisha, are at the bottom of the drinking water availability index (2018). This is according to the Economic Survey Report 2020-21. According to the report, the contribution of the service sector to the GDP of the state has increased in six states, including Odisha, in 2019-20. In 2019-20, the share of services in the total GDP of Odisha is 40.8 per cent. In Odisha, the average growth rate in the service sector was 7.20 per cent between 2015-16 and 2019-20, according to the report. The report states that six states, including Odisha, have been provided assistance under the price fixing fund. Odisha ranks second in the country in sunflower production. In 2019-20, 0.03 million tonnes of sunflower flowers were produced in Odisha. At the national level, the share of production was 12-71 per cent. In 2016-17, the enrollment rate was 43.5 per cent in Elementary Schools in Odisha, 45.7 per cent in Senior Secondary Schools and 22.1 per cent in Higher Education. On the other hand, in 2017, Odisha had a turnover of 8.2 per cent in the 8- to 10-year-olds, 7.2 per cent in the 11-13-year-olds, 7.62 per cent in the 18- to 18-year-olds and 18.0 per cent in the 18- to 13-year-olds, the report said. The literacy rate has been steadily rising in the state from 1951 to 2011. In Odisha, the literacy rate was 15.6 per cent in 1951, while in 2011 it was 72.6 per cent. According to the report, the number of households in Odisha under the safe drinking water supply was 14.1 per cent in rural and urban areas, compared to 34.1 per cent in 2011 and 45.3 per cent in 2011. According to the Economic Survey, 15 states, including Odisha, have agreed to implement a pilot project on the distribution of nutritious rice to states to eliminate malnutrition in one district of their state. In 2017-18, the unemployment rate in the state was 8 per cent. The unemployment rate in rural areas was 8 percent, while in urban areas it was 12.6 percent, according to the report.
