-Economic and Political Weekly Ashish Bose coined the acronym BIMARU in the early 1980s to describe the backwardness of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh relative to the best-performing states in terms of demographic indicators. This article extends Bose's analysis to recent years to ascertain if the proposition is still valid. To retain the integrity of the original exercise, the same indicators examined by Bose have been analysed, as far...

-Tehelka Agrarian policies are proving to be an albatross around the neck of ordinary farmers Amon Singh Kevat, 70, a small farmer in Vidisha, Madhya Pradesh, spent three long days in April waiting for his harvest to be picked up from an open plot that served as a mandi (procurement centre for agricultural produce). In need of money for a marriage in the family, Kevat didn’t even go home for meals. But...

-The Indian Express Bhopal: The Madhya Pradesh government on Monday issued an ordinance to amend a law related to the ceiling on agricultural holdings, which will allow industrialists and private developers to easily purchase as much agricultural land as they want for non-agricultural activities. The Madhya Pradesh Ceiling on Agricultural Holdings (Amendment) Ordinance, 2015 was notified a month after the special Assembly session concluded, and just two months before the monsoon session...

 -Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare   The Government has conducted District Level Household Surveys (DLHS) during 1998-99 (DLHS-1), 2002-04 (DLHS-2), 2007-08 (DLHS-3) and 2012-13 (DLHS-4). Further, Annual Health Survey (AHS) which also provide district level data was conducted during 2010-11(AHS-1), 2011-12 (AHS-2) and 2012-13 (AHS-3).  The AHS was conducted in Assam, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand. Please click here to read more. ...

-Livemint.com/ India Ratings Report by India Ratings & Research Non-performing loan ratio of agriculture loan portfolio could double for some banks The asset quality of India’s agricultural credit could be significantly affected by crop damage due to untimely hail and rain in March, according to India Ratings and Research. The non-performing loan (NPL) ratio of the agriculture loan portfolio could double for some banks, though the reduction of overall return on average assets...