-The Business Standard Panel member questioned the choice of sub-components There is some consolation for Bharatiya Janata Party's prime ministerial candidate and Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi: Not everyone in a panel headed by Reserve Bank of India Governor and former chief economic advisor Raghuram Rajan had favoured the inclusion of Gujarat in the list of less developed states. economist and social scientist Shaibal Gupta, a member of the panel, had dissented and...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: An expert panel has ranked Gujarat 12th among states in development, its findings flying in the face of Narendra Modi's claims but winning endorsement from economists The Telegraph spoke to. The committee, headed by Raghuram Rajan who has since been appointed Reserve Bank governor, assessed states on the basis of 10 criteria, which included many human development indicators. Bengal came 16th. economist and Planning Commission member Abhijit Sen, who...

-Economic and Political Weekly In the popular and media imagination, fed by economists and columnists, Gujarat and Bihar have both recorded an extraordinary economic performance in the past decade. But a careful analysis shows that Gujarat, always one of the richest states, has done no better than before. In neither industry nor agriculture has its position radically changed. The only dramatic difference has been the emergence of import-dependent and export-oriented petroleum...

-The Times of India PATNA: Eighty-seven per cent of the rural population and 61% of urban residents in Bihar had calorie deficiency during 2009-10, as per reports of National Sample Survey Office. In fact, Bihar ranked 74th (alarming zone) in the global hunger index of 88 countries, according to a Survey of India State Hunger Index 2008. In the same survey, Jharkhand ranked 76th, Odisha 67th and UP 61st, all in...

-The Hindu In richer and poorer States, differing periods of danger for girl children: data Last year, 74,000 more girls under the age of 5 than boys died in India, numbers for which there is no biological explanation, researchers say. Moreover, while many richer States abort female foetuses at a higher rate than some poorer States, once the child is born, many poorer States have a worse record in ensuring her survival,...