The Reserve Bank of India has been publishing a study on ';State Finances: A Study of Budgets'; since 1950-51. With a view to improving dissemination of data on State finances and facilitate academic and policy research, the Reserve Bank brought out a new publication ';Handbook of Statistics on State Government Finances'; in 2004. This Handbook of Statistics on State Government Finances, which is second in the series, aims at updating the database on State finances further. The first part of the Handbook covers State-wise data from 1990-91 to 2009-10 (BE) on some major fiscal indicators. The second part covers State-wise detailed data from 2002-03 to 2009-10 (BE) on the transactions in the revenue and capital accounts. This Handbook, containing data on 28 States and 2 UTs, is being released in three versions, viz., printed, CD and web-based (www.rbi.org.in) version. The CD version incorporates intelligent search features and is more comprehensive than printed version covering data from 1980-81 onwards in the first part and State-wise detailed data from 1990-91 onwards in the second part. Each print version of the Handbook is accompanied by a copy of the CD version.

The State-wise data reported in the Handbook have been collated from various issues of the State Finance articles published by the Reserve Bank. The data reported in the State Finance articles have been, in turn, compiled from the budget documents of the State Governments. These data could, thus, differ from the audited data reported by the Comptroller and Auditor General of India.

The Handbook has been prepared in the Division of State and Local Finances (DSLF) of the Department of Economic Analysis and Policy (DEAP) under the overall direction of Shri Deepak Mohanty, Executive Director. Shri B.M. Misra, Adviser, DEAP, provided valuable guidance at each stage of the preparation of the Handbook. Smt. R. Kausaliya, Director, DSLF, DEAP, supervised the task of compilation of the Handbook, assisted by Shri A. Karunagaran, Shri Rajeev Jain, Assistant Advisers and Shri Dhirendra Gajbhiye and Shri Dirghau Keshao Raut, Research Officers. Shri A.K. Dharampal, Shri T.R. Muralidharan, Shri P.P. Joshi, Shri B.A. Rankhambe and Smt. E. Fernandes provided support in data collation for the Handbook.

We welcome feedback/comments on the Handbook. These may be sent to Director, Division of State and Local Finances, Department of Economic Analysis and Policy, Reserve Bank of India, Shahid Bhagat Singh Road, Mumbai 400 001 or through email to rkaushalya@rbi.org.in.

Subir Gokarn
Deputy Governor
July 6, 2010