MUMBAI, March 6 -- Maharashtra's economic growth is expected to be 7.9% in 2025-26 against 7.3% in 2024-25, according to the 2025-26 Economic Survey presented in the state legislature by minister of state for finance Ashish Jaiswal. The Agriculture sector has taken beating comparing the last FY, as it is expected to drop to 3.4% in 2025-26 from last year's growth of 9.1%, while industry (from 4.3% to 5.7%) and services (from 8.3% to 9%) are expected to perform better in 2025-26. While the state has shown growth between 2024-25 and 2025-26, the growth is more than that at the national trend which is expected to be at 7.6%. The tabling of the Economic Survey is a precursor to the state budget scheduled for March 6 as the Devendra Fadnavis-led Mahayuti government tries to balance its populist commitments with the goal of making Maharashtra a $1 trillion (roughly Rs.91 lakh crore as per current exchange rate) economy in nominal terms by 2030. The state's nominal GSDP is expected to be 51 lakh crore in 2025-26. The state's share in the nominal GSDP of the country is 14% in 2024-25, and the economic growth for the fifth consecutive year is owing to the record GST collection and favourable price atmosphere, the economic survey has stated. Maharashtra already has the highest GDP share among all states in India and its per capita income of Rs.3.48 lakh crore in 2025-26, which has grown from Rs.3.18 lakh crore from the previous FY as per the first revised estimates. It is significantly higher than the national average of Rs.2.20 lakh. In 2024-25 the state's per capita income ranked fifth (behind Telangana, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu and Gujarat) among top 10 states by GDP in the country. The high rate of the per capita income have mostly come from six districts - Mumbai, Thane, Pune, Nagpur, Raigad and Kolhapur that have the income over Rs.3 lakh. Eleven districts have income lower than Rs.2 lakh and are below the national per capita income of Rs.2.05 lakh. Remaining 19 districts remain between Rs.2 and Rs.3 lakh. As per 2025-26 budget estimates, debt stock of the State is expected to increase by 11.1% over the previous year. "The percentage to the GSDP is 18.3% which is expected to be within the prescribed limit of 25% of GSDP as per FRBM rules, 2006," the economic survey has stated. The major contributor of total debt stock is internal debt of the state, which is expected to be Rs.7,39,859 crore (79.4% of the total debt share of GDP). Debt stock in 2025-26 is expected to be Rs.9.32 lakh crore (18.3% of GSDP), of which Rs.64,659 crore are towards the interest payments. A sector-wise breakup of growth numbers shows that services and industries have helped improving the growth rate. Industry is expected to improve to 5.7% from 4.3% in FY 2024-25 though its growth rate in 2023-24 was 10.7%. Services sector is expected to grow at 9% in 2025-26 against the rate of 8.3% in 2024-25. The services sector has however dropped from 14% in 2022-23 and 8.5% in2023-24. "The agriculture sector witnessed a significant drop due to the downpour in September-October last year damaging over 60% of the kharif crops," said officials from the agriculture department. The unseasonal rains resulted in losses to more than 35 lakh farmers in over 29 districts. The state government, in October last year, announced the package of Rs.31,628 crore, of which over Rs.15,000 crore has been disbursed. Farm expert Vijay Jawandhia said, "Given the damages from last year, market price per quintal of the crops like soyabean and cotton have dropped by Rs.1000 below the MSP. Farmers have not received compensation for their crop losses, and in this backdrop the drop in the growth rate is not a surprise," he said....