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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The deep water crisis -P Sainath
-The Hindu Hard-working rig-operators are providing a real response to a very real demand from farmers, but with grave consequences for groundwater supplies No other town can boast as deep a connection with the rest of the country as this little one in Tamil Nadu. Machines from here have struck great depths in most Indian States (and in many African countries as well). Tiruchengode is the nation's borewell rig capital and thousands...
More »Two out of three say UPA is corrupt-Rukmini S
-The Hindu Growing number believe that the BJP is better at handling corruption Two out of three people feel that the UPA-2 is corrupt and that corruption has increased over the last four years, while a growing number believe that the BJP is better at handling corruption than the UPA, according to the CSDS poll. Even though corruption is only the fifth most important issue for voters in the 2014 elections, according to...
More »Rs 27 per day: India's new rural poverty line
-Down to Earth New poverty estimate claims fastest ever decline in poverty during UPA's regime The Planning Commission has declared the new poverty line for rural and urban areas. It is Rs 27 a day for rural areas and Rs 30 a day for urban areas. Just a year ago when the Commission suggested a poverty line of Rs 22 a day for rural areas, there was a national outrage over it. Subsequently,...
More »Gujarat slides in both rural and urban spending, data reveals -Subodh Varma
-The Times of India There's a new trend of chief ministers, particularly those with national ambitions, aggressively peddling their respective 'development models'. Interestingly, CMs from the same party at times indulge in one-upmanship. The question is: How are people in their states actually faring? How does one know whether one 'model' is better than another? One way is to look at how much a person spends on an average every month;...
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