A decade after division, Telangana emerges as an economic powerhouse of India

Telangana’s upward march to an economic powerhouse has not stalled despite the Covid-19 pandemic shock, a high debt burden, and vagaries of weather; the RBI’s Handbook on Statistics of Indian States-2025 shows.

The Gross State Domestic Product has surged from 5,05,84,879 in 2014-15 to 16,40,90,143 in 2024-25 a 224.38% growth in Telangana. In comparison, Kerala, which had a similar base figure in 2014-15 saw 143% growth in GSDP.

The Per Capita Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) has similarly rocketed from ₹124,104 in 2014-15 to ₹3,87,623 in 2024-25 a growth of 212%. In the same period, Karnataka, which had a similar NSDP, saw a growth of 104.9% from ₹1,85,840 to ₹3,80,906. Telangana’s PCNSDP is the second highest in the country after Delhi.

The PCNSDP is the average economic output per person in a State, dividing the State’s total Net State Domestic Product (NSDP) by its population. It offers an insight into the average income of the citizens in a State and their living standards.

This growth has been bolstered on two fronts. The State’s inflation has been dropped below the national average for the first time in five years. In 2024-25, the inflation in the State was 3.7% while the national average is 4.6% thus making the personal money go a little further. The State has also seen its exports surge three times from $6,572 million in 2017-18 to $19,123 million. The rise in exports is linked to sharp uptick in services sector which logged 138% in Gross State Value Added between 2017-18 and 2024-25.

In the agriculture sector, foodgrain production has quadrupled over the past few years from 5,129 thousand tonnes in 2015-16 to 21,634.4 thousand tonnes in 2024-25. In comparison, A.P.’s grain production has remained stable in the same period from 10,633.7 to 11,722 thousand tonnes.
However, this happened at a time when the factories sector reached a stagnation point. The number of factories in Telangana were 14,110 in 2013-14 and peaked at 15,342 in the pre-pandemic year of 20-21 and has dropped down to 13,446 in 23-24. These numbers are matched with the number of employees in the sector that has remained near stationary with 1,13,922 in 2013-14 to 1,35,338 in 2023-24.

Another key index showing a changing lifestyle is access to energy. Telangana’s per capita availability of power is now among the highest in the country among the larger States at 2,306.1 kilowatt-hour, just behind Punjab at 2,503.4 kWh.