Background/Objectives: The changing contours for Goa State’s iron-ore export industry, its markets and resultant impact on domestic economy is documented across the space and time heterogeneity for the period over 5 decades, beginning the liberation of the State in 1962 till the mining ban by the Hon. Supreme Court in 2012.
Methods/Statistical analysis: The data for the analysis is from 1962-2012 and is divided into four sub-periods; pre-statehood (1962-87), post-statehood period (1988-2012), pre-liberalization (1962-1992) and as post-liberalization (1993-2012) period respectively, and analyzed by fitting the semi-log and linear-trend regression models using time-dummies.
Findings: The study broadly suggests a diminishing contribution of the iron-ore export activity to Goan economy over-time, reflecting an underlying compositional shift in the Goan economy. The changing composition of the export markets of reveals the changing competitiveness of iron-ore export in the international markets due to various extraneous factors. Further it seems that Goa’s iron-ore exports have eased concentration form Japan and are more headed towards the Chinese markets.
Improvements/Applications: The present study attempts an analytical inquiry of what is regarded as the “backbone” of Goa’s economy through the analysis of trends in mining and export of iron-ore from India and Goa using data over a longer time-frame.