Prioritizing Sectors for Economic Development in Sikkim, India

Sikkim, a mountainous state in the Himalayas joined the democratic mainstream of the Indian Union in 1975. It has made enormous progress in planned economic development since then. Mountainous terrain and lack of reliable transportation and infrastructure does not allow establishments of large scale industries. Agriculture, dairy farming and cottage industries have limited scope of expansion. Hydro-electricity generation, pharmaceutical, tourism and tea appear to be promising and fastest growing economic sectors. Thus, these four growth sectors have been considered for evaluation. Six major criteria (such as Installation Cost, Return on Investment, Sustainability, Social Acceptance, Environment Friendliness, and Future Demand) were appropriately selected have been considered for evaluation of these alternatives for prioritising these economic sectors. The alternatives were subjected to pairwise comparison using the Analytic Hierarchy Process (AHP) so as to arrive at objective conclusions. The analysis of selected economic sectors and findings has been discussed in this article. Prioritizing Sectors for Economic Development in Sikkim, India