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The country has lost an astounding Rs 1,16,724 crore due to cost-overruns in 203 infrastructure projects. This works out to 68 per cent over the approved original cost. And these are the official figures from the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation that monitors the 600 infrastructure projects that cost over Rs 150 crore each. |
| It's well over twice the current Bihar budget of Rs 53,927 crore. This money could also be used to build more than 11,000 Kendriya Vidyalayas at Rs 10.5 crore per building. It's also almost as huge as the estimated Rs 1,50,000 crore 2G scam that's rocking Parliament these days. India Today Nov 23 2010 |
India losing 5,334 million tonnes of soil annually due to erosion: Govt
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India is losing 5,334 million tonnes of soil every year due to soil erosion because of indiscreet and excess use of fertilisers, insecticides and pesticides over the years, Parliament was told today.
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About one millimetre of top soil is being lost each year with a total loss of 5,334 million tonnes annually due to soil erosion, Minister of State for Agriculture K. V. Thomas said in a written reply in Rajya Sabha.
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The rate of loss is 16.4 tonnes per hectare every year, the minister said while quoting from a study conducted by Central Soil Water Conservation Research and Training Institute (CSWCRTI), Dehradun.
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Experiments conducted by Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR) indicated that non-judicious and imbalanced use of inorganic fertilisers (NPK) over years may result in deterioration of soil fertility/nutrient deficiencies, Mr. Thomas said.
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| On whether wrong irrigation practices were also responsible for this, the minister said excessive use of irrigation water in canal command may lead to secondary salinisation, affecting, thereby, the soil and crop productivity. PTI 261110 |
| Far more Indians have access to cell phones than to basic sanitation |
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| According to Millennium Development Goals India Country Report 2009, “India, one of the most densely populated countries in the world, has the lowest sanitation coverage.” The target is to reduce the proportion of households without access to improved sanitation to 38 per cent by 2015; the proportion of households without any toilet facility declined from about 70 per cent in 1992-93 to about 51 per cent in 2007-08. There is very high disparity between urban and rural areas when it comes to access to toilet facilities — 66 per cent of rural households do not have toilet facilities against 19 per cent of urban households, according to DLHS-3 (District-Level Household and Facility Survey) data for 2007-08. Among the states with lowest access to toilet facilities are Bihar (17 per cent), Chhattisgarh (17.9 per cent), Jharkhand (14.5 per cent), Rajasthan (25.1 per cent) and Uttar Pradesh (26.4 per cent), while the states where households have highest access to toilet facilities include Delhi (94.3 per cent), Kerala (96.7 per cent), Lakshadweep (98.8 per cent) and Mizoram (98.2 per cent). This is one indicator where the north-eastern states perform better than the rest. Indicus Analytics / November 18, 2010 |
Most productivity growth will need to come in rain-fed areas,
where most production occurs . The rain-fed regions, home to most of the world’s poor, were largely bypassed by the Green Revolution . Though advances in technology could raise yields further in irrigated areas, much of the increase in crop production will need to come from drier, riskier production environments, which often have weak service from market infrastructure. Growth and Productivity in Agriculture and Agribusiness 2010-WB IEG
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Unemployment rate high @9.4%
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The employment-unemployment survey was conducted by the Labour Bureau of the Union Ministry of Labour and Employment. It shows an unemployment rate of 9.4 per cent in the year 2009-10.
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Share of self employed, casual and organized labor –per thousand
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Self employed |
Casual |
Residual(Organised) |
| Rural |
457/1000 |
435/1000 |
108/1000 |
| Urban |
439/1000 |
393/1000 |
168/1000 |
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The share of “self-employed” and “casual employed” is inordinately high. For an economy like India’s, a high share of self-employed (457/1,000) and casual labour (435/1,000) in total rural labour force is understandable. However, if even in urban areas the self-employed (439/1,000) and casual labour (393/1,000) dominate the total labour force, with salaried employed being the residual, it is because labour policy in India discourages firms from hiring full-time salaried workers and encourages casualisation of labour. The so-called “self-employed” are also potential workers since the self-employment of many is not a choice but a necessity. |
Kharif output seen rising 10 per cent to 114mt: CMIE |
The Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) says farm out will grow by 10 per cent to 114 million tonne in the 2010 Kharif season, against a 12 per cent decline in the year ago season, while Rabi season is expected to report a 2 per cent spike at 116.6 mt compared to a 1.7 per cent drop last season. |
The agency pegs the overall foodgrain output growth up by 5.3 per cent to 229.7 million tonne, which is lower than 234.5 mt produced in 2008-09. ET 161110 |
Modern Economic Terms: Crony capitalism is a condition in which participants in an economy rooted in capitalism earn and manipulate favor with one or more government entities. |
The favor is generally not based on quality or merit; instead the relationship is normally based on political posturing that results in both the capitalists in business and the government officials determine such a relationship would be mutually advantageous. In the worst examples, this variant of capitalism creates a situation where taxes collected from citizens are used to purchase overpriced goods and services from favored suppliers, who in turn influence the creation and application of laws impacting business operations. |
Rent-Seeking |
When a company, organization or individual uses their resources/clout to obtain an economic gain from others without reciprocating any benefits back to society through wealth creation. |
Example of rent-seeking are: when a company lobbies the government for loan subsidies, grants or tariff protection; organized groups demand and get hike in pay and perks with out corresponding increase in productivity and/or quality of service. These activities don't create any benefit for society, they just redistribute resources from the taxpayers to the special-interest group.
*RBI’s inspection report for March 2009, said that SBI has not classified a substantial portion of its loan as bad loans, which in turn helped them sho w higher profit. ET 131110 |
Opportunistic bias: “… conceptions of reality…are influenced by the interests as commonly perceived by the dominant groups in the society… that they so come to deviate from truth in a direction opportune to these interests…” The Government of India is, therefore, afraid to honestly examine if the official numbers truly represent the ground reality. To illustrate, much of the incremental domestic output after the reforms in 1991 has come from the services sector. But it has been demonstrated that unlike in the previous four decades, it is precisely from 1991 onwards that the implicit deflator for the services sector has grown at a slower rate than the overall GDP deflator, thereby inflating the growth rate of this sector. Holes in Official Data, EPW 021010 |
Krsr/and152/29110 |
