Chhattisgarh is among six States mainly Odisha, Telangana, Madhya Pradesh, Karnataka, and Bihar having higher limits of 3.5 per cent of GSDP because they have strong overall fiscal positions, as deemed by the 14th Finance Commission’s (FFC’s) criteria, the India Economic Survey (Volume II) of the Union Ministry of Finance released recently has informed. States are ranked by the extent of fiscal space. The fiscal limit for most states is 3 percent of GSDP. Comparing limits with the BE estimates for 2017-18, only seven States have fiscal space exceeding 0.5 per cent of GSDP. The States with the most space in rupee terms are Maharashtra, Gujarat, West Bengal, Karnataka and Madhya Pradesh. In relative terms, Jharkhand also has considerable space, amounting to 0.7 percent of GSDP. States with no additional deficit capacity include Uttar Pradesh, Telangana, Rajasthan, Andhra Pradesh, and Odisha. An analysis of the State level Budgets for 2014-15 and 2015-16 (RE) shows that the increase in share of social services varied widely across States. While the increase in social sector spending was in the range of 15 to 20 per cent in West Bengal, Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat, the increase was more than 45 per cent in the poorer States like Bihar 46 per cent Chhattisgarh 49 per cent and Jharkhand 53 per cent. Notably, the Economic Survey 2016-17 report of Chhattisgarh Government was placed on the Table of the Chhattisgarh Legislative Assembly by Chief Minister Raman Singh in March this year. As per advance estimate, the Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) (market price) at constant price is likely to grow at 7.14 per cent over the previous year 2015-16, it informed. The Growth in Gross State Value Added (basic prices), Agriculture sector (Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing), Industry sector (Mining and Quarrying, Construction, Manufacturing and Electricity, Gas & Water supply) and Service sector are expected to be 7.40 per cent, 5.87 per cent, 6.11 per cent and 9.90 per cent respectively, over the previous year. The GSDP at current price (market price) is likely to increase to Rs 2,90,140 crore in the year 2016-17 from Rs 2,60,776 crore as estimated for the year 2015-16 with 11.26 per cent increase compared to the previous year. The Gross State Value Added (basic prices) is expected to increase from Rs 2,46,993 crore to Rs 2,75,655 crore. Contribution from Agriculture sector (Agriculture, Livestock, Forestry and Fishing) increase to Rs 48,522 crore from Rs 43,419 crore; from Industry sector (Mining and Quarrying, Construction, Manufacturing and Electricity, Gas & Water supply) it increased to Rs 1,27,389 crore from Rs 1,16,589 crore and that from Service sector raised from Rs 86,985 crore to Rs 99,744 crore. Per cent increase compared to the previous year are 11.60 per cent, 11.75 per cent, 9.26 per cent and 14.67 per cent respectively. Chhattisgarh is among 13 States which had been mentioned in the Economic Survey report 2015-16 as a success story on use of drip irrigation by farmers on their lands. The results from an impact evaluation of National Mission on Micro Irrigation of the Union Ministry of Agriculture conducted in 64 districts of 13 States mainly Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat, Haryana, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan, Tamil Nadu, Sikkim, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand are revealing on the benefits of drip irrigation, according to the survey report. There were substantial reductions in irrigation costs and savings on electricity and fertilisers. This is because water is efficiently supplied and hence pumps are used for a limited time. Moreover, water soluble fertilisers are supplied directly to the root of the plant and hence there is less wastage, it stated. Yields of crops also went upto 45 per cent in wheat, 20 per cent in gram and 40 per cent in soybean, the report stated.