North East India: A service sector led economy

Abstract

The contribution made by the primary, secondary and tertiary sectors towards the national or state income shows the extent of economic development of an economy. As the pace of economic development quickens, the importance of primary sector towards its contribution to national or state income declines while secondary and tertiary or service sectors attain more prominence in terms of their contribution in income. This indicates economic development following Fisher-Clark theory. With a view to explore the structural transformation, this paper focusses on the sectoral composition of income in the north-eastern region of India, comprised of 8 states namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Manipur, Sikkim and Tripura. Various statistical tools and charts are used for the analysis. It is found that the tertiary or service sector is the leading force in the north-eastern region in terms of trend growth rate.