-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...

-Down to Earth The Centre's decision to reduce Panchayati Raj Ministry's budget and transfer its schemes to states has left the ministry bewildered about its job and caught states unprepared for devolution of power IS IT Prime Minister Narendra Modi's initiative to devolve power to states and allow them to design their development programmes according to their priorities, or to make irrelevant a ministry that was created under the regime of the...

-The Times of India CHENNAI: Livelihood issues have been pushing high school and higher-secondary pass-outs of Tamil Nadu to head out to foreign shores. At least one out of every 20 households in the state, predominantly along the coastal belt, have migrant workers in South East Asian and Arab countries, said a sample study by social scientists here. The average cost of migration for a person is estimated at Rs 95,800. This...

-Maintream Weekly In order to reduce and remove the many-sided disadvantages and problems faced by Dalits and adivasis, sub-plans for the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes have been introduced to ensure adequate and justice-based availability of funds for these communities. Summarising the basic idea and rationale for this, the Planning Commission says: “the persistence of socio-economic backwardness of the SCs and STs in spite of the development efforts had warranted a special...

-The Hindu Bengaluru: During the survey, enumerators will be asking 55 questions to the household and not all questions are mandatory to be answered. The first caste census, which will be conducted across the State over the next 20 days, got underway on Saturday. Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy flagged off the census in Bengaluru in the presence of Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike Commissioner M. Laxminarayana and Backward Classes Commissioner H. Kantharaj. Mr. Reddy...