Ashish Bose coined the term BIMARU in a paper to then prime minister Rajiv Gandhi in the 1980s to highlight the economic backwardness of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. He tells Somesh Jha he is not inspired by the Planning Commission’s bogus poverty figures. He says it is time the commission wound up. Excerpts: * You coined the term 'BIMARU', but these states performed well in alleviating poverty in...
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Facing flak, govt to revise poverty line benchmark
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government will soon revise the contentious poverty line upward from Rs 27.20 in rural areas and Rs 33.40 in urban areas after it receives the report of the Rangarajan committee that is examining the validity of the current yardstick. Minister of state for planning Rajeev Shukla told TOI the government was in the process of re-evaluating the poverty line in a bid to make it...
More »Measuring poverty: How the world counts its poor -Gaurav Choudhury and Chetan Chauhan
-The Hindustan Times What does it mean to be poor across the world? It means different things in different countries depending on the definition of the poverty line-an income threshold below which families are considered poor. In most of Europe, a family with a net income of less than 60% of the "median net disposable income" - a broad measure of the national average income net of taxes income - is counted...
More »Figuring out Gujarat -Bhalchandra Mungekar
-The Indian Express The Gujarat model of development is not what its champions say it is Having realised that the people of India have not exonerated him for the post-Godhra killings of Muslims in 2002 on his watch, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi systematically tried to build up his image as a "man of development"(vikas purush). The Sangh Parivar called it the "Gujarat model of development" and started propagating it. But what...
More »Income disparity between rich and poor growing rapidly -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Everybody knows that there is a chasm between the rich and the poor. But can it be measured? And, more importantly, is this disparity between the rich and poor growing or coming down? New data based on consumption expenditure surveys shows that income disparity is growing and at a rapid clip. Spending and consumption by the richest 5% zoomed up by over 60% between 2000 and...
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