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The expert group headed by Dr Suresh Tendulkar, former chairman of the Prime Minister's Economic Advisory Council, estimated that 37.2 per cent of Indians live below the poverty line (BPL), 10 per cent higher than earlier estimated by the Planning Commission.
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| According to this estimate, 41.8 per cent of rural population lived on a monthly per capita expenditure of Rs 447. In urban areas, the BPL population was 25.7 per cent, living on a per capita expenditure of Rs 578.8. The figures are for 2004-05, drawn from the latest available major National Sample Survey (NSS) round. |
Poverty in rural areas is much more acute; it is as high as 57.2 per cent in Orissa, 55.7 per cent in Bihar and 53.6 per cent in Madhya Pradesh.
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The proportion of malnourished children, there seems to be virtually no improvement here over the years — 46 per cent in 2005-06 as compared with 47 per cent in 1998-99. Even with regard to safe drinking water and sanitation, the situation remains hugely disappointing.
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Increasing Income Inequalities
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A study by the National Council of Applied Economic Research (NCAER) shows that the top 20 per cent of India's population had 53.2 per cent share of the national income in 2009-10, up from 36.7 per cent in 1993-94. The bottom 60 per cent had a mere 27.9 per cent share in total income in 2009-10, down from 38.6 per cent at the start
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To achieve a more inclusive growth, it is critically important to balance growth and equity. The core agenda for inclusive growth must include a new deal for agriculture, a greater thrust on upgradation of skills and empowerment of the downtrodden. Equally important is improvement in governance and delivery.
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| Sorce:“We are poorer than we thought”, S. D. NAIK - BL 070910 |
45 Million Ration Cards issued to ineligible persons
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| The number of fake ration cards in existence today is shockingly large. Going by official reckoning, while the total number of households falling in the below poverty line (BPL) category is reckoned at 65.2 million, as many as 110.8 million ration cards had been issued by the state governments till March 2009. This is despite leaving a sizeable proportion of deserving households out of the PDS network. These fake cards, coupled with corruption at the ration shop level, constitute the major source of leakage of highly subsidised foodgrain. Such swindling ought not to be allowed to go on. BS 060910 |
The slippery slope of corruption
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The new wealth and prosperity are, in fact, feeding a frenzy of corruption that is quickly causing the decay of societal morals and ethics. Even the national honour is up for auction in hosting the Commonwealth Games. A nation that aspires to be a superpower cannot take pride in its abysmal 84th place in the corruption perception index as measured by Transparency International.
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Bribing is now considered an investment by many who seek government jobs. This investment, they assume, gives them a moral right to expect a return through more corruption. For citizens and businesses, it is faster and more efficient to engage in immoral and illegal activities in their interactions with government. Those who can, or are willing to, engage in such activities are likely to have fewer headaches and greater rewards.
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If corruption has to be controlled, there needs to be greater transparency, accountability, enforcement, and self-governance. All these are difficult to achieve, and require experimentation and different thinking. The slippery slope of corruption has a powerful downdraft where the weak and the honest suffer the most. The Hindu 020910
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| PSBs wrote off loans worth Rs 10,966 cr in FY10: FinMin |
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Public sector banks wrote-off loans worth Rs 10,966 crore from their books of accounts during the 2009-10. During 2008-09, the public sector banks had together written off Rs 7,217 crore in loans. State Bank of India had written off Rs 1,990 crore worth of loans, while Canara Bank and Punjab National Bank wrote off Rs 884 cror e and Rs 853 crore, respectively during the year. PTI 270810 |
| Loan quality in Indian banks deteriorated: Bhatt. SBI |
"In the last two years, there has been a sharp deterioration in the asset quality (of lenders) because of stress in products like credit cards and personal loans "
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| Wheat’s genetic code cracked, say scientists |
A team of British scientists has decoded the genetic sequence of wheat — claimed to be the largest genome to be sequenced to-date — raising the prospects of bigger and faster disease-resistant crops to meet the looming global food shortage. Researchers said farmers were expected to start producing higher-yields of disease resistant crops within five years. The new advance would help produce crops that could “thrive in challenging conditions” at a time when the world was facing the prospect of food shortages. The Hindu 270810 |
| Pampered IT Industry |
The “effective tax rate” on 8,166 firms identified as “Software Development Agencies” was 11.8 per cent and that on 6,493 firms identified as “IT Enabled Services, BPO [Business Process Outsourcing] Service Providers” was 13.1 per cent. The effective tax rate is the ratio of total taxes paid (including surcharge and education cess but excluding Dividend Distribution Tax and Fringe Benefit Tax) to the total profits before taxes (PBT). This compares with the statutory tax rate of 33.99 per cent, which would have applied if no concessions were provided. Since input and capital costs are low in this service industry, and cheap skilled labour is its strength, profit does constitute a high share of per worker income. This concession is, therefore, a bonanza, which even today the industry zealously lobbies for. FL 280810 |
Do MPs deserve 300% hike in their salries?
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If you have consistently missed your work targets, not contributed much at important meetings, created disruptive scenes at the workplace and are short of attendance, what do you think your employer would do? Would you expect a 300 per cent increase in salary? Hardly, one suspects.
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But that's just what our elected representatives got — after passing barely 24 of the 70 Bills pending before Parliament. Work Ethics: the very first week of the monsoon session was washed out by the usual stormy scenes and adjournments, Parliament going its usual, non-productive way. “What, we work?”
Chitra Narayanan BL 100910 |
Hike in Central Govt Babus DA Costing RS 9,300 crore
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Govt has raised sarkari babus' Dearness Allowance 10 percentage points to 45%, effective from July 2010, which will cost taxpayers a whopping Rs 9,303 cr. benefiting about about 50 lakh central government employees without any corresponding benefit to the economy and about 38 lakh pensioners. 160910 |
Note: Increase in plan alloction to agricultre, accounting for 55% of the total work force, is a megre amount of Rs 2,200 crore in 2010-11 compared to half-yearly increase of nearly Rs 10,000 crore to bereaucrats ,who constitute a miniscule part of work force contributing nothing extra for thr hefty hike in DA. And we call this inclusive development! |
| Krsr/and/143/24 0910 |
