Maharashtra's industrial production is said to have grown by 8.7 per cent during 2003-04.

The secondary sector (construction, manufacturing) grew by 7.4 per cent, while the tertiary sector (services, namely trade, hotels and restaurants, communication, banking and insurance) grew by 7.6 per cent.

Unfortunately, owing to the acute drought in 11 districts of the state, agricultural growth slipped, slowing down the overall growth rate of the state, according to the economic survey of Maharashtra for 2003-2004.

Maharashtra is now much less of an agrarian state -- its economy is increasingly being dominated by services sector.

According to the economic survey, the broad sectoral composition of the state income in 2002-03 indicates that the share of the primary (agriculture), secondary (industry) and tertiary (services) sectors was 15.8 per cent, 24.8 per cent and 59.3 per cent, respectively.

"The sectoral composition of the state income has undergone considerable changes during the period between 1960-61 and 2002-03. During this period, the share of the primary sector declined from 34.4 per cent to 15.8 per cent and the share of the secondary sector remained almost the same at about 25 per cent. However, the share of the tertiary sector increased from 39.9 per cent to 59.3 per cent," the report states.

The report pegs the year-on-year growth rate in the secondary sector at 6.4 per cent in 2002-03. The growth of electricity, gas and water supply grew by 6.9 per cent in 2002-03, according to the economic survey.

The growth in the registered manufacturing sector was 5 per cent in 2002-03, up from minus 4.2 per cent in 2000-01. The growth in unregistered manufacturing sector has been pegged at a healthy 5.8 per cent. Similarly, the construction sector grew by 11.5 per cent in 2002-03, up from 10.2 per cent in the previous fiscal.

On the national competitive ranking of states based on annual growth rate and per capita state income, Maharashtra (4.8 per cent economic growth and 2.8 per cent in growth in per capita income) is ranked after Punjab (4.4 per cent and 2.5 per cent, respectively) and Haryana (5.6 per cent and 3 per cent, respectively).

Similarly, its per capita income at current prices at Rs 24,248 (ranked third) is behind only Punjab (Rs 25,652) and Haryana (Rs 24,575).

Meanwhile, Union Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar said at a meeting in Mumbai that the government would double the Rs 73,600 crore (Rs 736 billion) of rural credit over next three years and set up infrastructure to enable farmers to play a prominent role at the global level.

"The rural credit limit will have to be enhanced and we will talk to banking institutions... Resources will have to be mobolised for the purpose," Pawar said.

He said a sizeable section of farmers were defaulters and so they needed to be financially helped to increase their yields.

Attacking the previous government for neglecting the plight of farmers, he emphasised that interests of domestic producers would be protected at all costs.

At the next World Trade Organisation meet, agriculture would be discussed in detail and there are indications that "certain powerful countries will pressurise developing nations to safeguard their interests," Pawar said, adding, "India will adopt pragmatic approach over the issue and will protect interests of domestic producers."

Lifting of restrictions on inter-state agri-marketing was needed and the government would provide new direction to the agriculture sector, he added.

He lamented that though India was a leader in production of several agricultural products, its farmers were not playing an effective role at the international level.

"The government will set up a mechanism to enable our farmers to be global players," he said.

On crop insurance scheme, the minister said it needed a review and he was looking into the matter.