BS@50: How money has moved between the Centre and the states over the past 5 decades

In 1975, the size of India’s annual government expenditure, made by the Centre, 22 states and eight Union Territories, was about Rs 15,690 crore. This was equivalent to about 20 per cent of India’s gross domestic product (GDP) that year. Over the past 50 years, by 2023-24, not only has the number of states grown to 28, but the size of their annual expenditure together with that of the eight Union Territories and the Centre has also risen to nearly Rs 90 trillion — more than 30 per cent of India’s GDP.

That the Indian government