Flopped model? 8 states officially "beat" Gujarat's decelerating growth rate; five states in per capita income

By Our Representative
Gujarat’s Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP) for the year 2014-15 has been “officially” released – it has been calculated to be 7.70 per cent at constant prices, taking 2011-12 as the base year. The figures, released by the Government of India’s Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MOSPI), show, it is the lowest growth over the last three years.
In the year 2012-13, Gujarat’s growth rate was 10.84 per cent, which went down to 8.31 per cent in 2013-14.
While the figures for the year 2015-16 have still not been officially released, experts have calculated that they would be 6.7 per cent, lower than the all-India average of 7.6 per cent. The calculation is based on Gujarat government estimates of current price GSDP (without deducting deduction), pegged at 10 per cent, lowest since 2010-11.

Interestingly, eight major Indian states out of 21 have registered a higher rate of growth than Gujarat – providing ammunition to critics to declare that the state's neo-liberal economic growth model, projected by Prime Minister Narendra Modi for the country as a whole, is beginning to falter.
The highest growth rate for 2014-15 was registered by Bihar at 15.56 per cent, followed by Jharkhand (11.04 per cent), Telangana (8.82 per cent), Tamil Nadu (8.65 per cent), Andhra Pradesh (7.98 per cent), Haryana (7.98 per cent), and Chhattisgarh (7.85 per cent).
So far, only four major states have declared their GSDP estimates for the year 2015-16 – Andhra Pradesh (10.99 per cent), Bihar (10.27 per cent), Madhya Pradesh (10.16 per cent), Telangana (9.24 per cent), Karnataka (7.79 per cent), and Uttarakhand (7.65 per cent).
In per capita rate of growth, too, there is deceleration, the MOSPI figures show. At Rs 1,08,433 for the year 2014-15, the figures show that the growth rate was 6.80 per cent, down from 7.09 per cent in 2013-14 and 10.48 per cent in 2012-13.

While Gujarat’s per capita income is higher than the national average (Rs 72,889), five major states registered a higher per capita income than Gujarat – Haryana (Rs 1,24,092), Uttarakhand (Rs 1,20,759), Kerala (Rs 1,15,225), Tamil Nadu (Rs 1,13,817), and Maharashtra (Rs 1,13,817).
Notably, according to neo-liberal economists, one of whom is currently Gujarat government’s top man in the policy-making body, Niti Aayog, Arvind Panagariya, economic growth in the economy should automatically take care of the need for improvement in social sectors, a theory disputed by a wide range of economists, one of whom is Nobel laureate Amartya Sen.
Gujarat’s per capita rate of growth at 6.80 per cent in 2014-15, say MOSPI data, is lower than five other states – Bihar (13.79 per cent), Jharkhand (10.31 per cent), Talangana (8.08 per cent), Tamil Nadu (7.81 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (7.16 per cent).

Comments

World Bank clarifies: Its 26th rank to India not for universal access to power but for ease of doing business

By Our Representative
In a major embarrassment to the Government of India, the World Bank has reportedly clarified that it has not ranked India 26th out of 130 countries for providing power to its population. The top international banker’s clarification comes following Union Power Minister Piyush Goyal’s claim that India has “improved to 26 position from 99” in access to electricity in just one year.

Modi model? "Refusal" to build Narmada's micro canals, keep Kutch dry; help industry

By Medha Patkar*
This is the latest photograph of the Kutch Branch Canal (KBC) of the Sardar Sarovar, as of April 8! What does it show, expose, and what memories do you recall? Is it dry or dead? Is it a canal or a carcass of the same?

Indian talc products contain "contaminated" asbestos structures, can cause cancer: Study

Counterview Desk
A recent study, using polarizing light microscopy, transmission electron microscopy (TEM), electron diffraction, and X-ray analysis on multiple over-the-counter Indian talc products for the presence of asbestos, has concluded that large quantities of body talc products are likely to pose a public health risk for asbestos-related diseases, especially for the cancers related to asbestos exposure.

Why are you silent on discrimination against Dalit jawans? Macwan questions Modi

By Rajiv Shah
Close on the heels of releasing his book in Gujarati, "Bhed Bharat", which lists 319 cases of atrocities against Dalits and Adivasis across the country over the last five years, well-known Gujarat Dalit rights leader Martin Macwan has shot an open letter to Prime Minister Narendra Modi, telling him the reasons why he does not want vote for the BJP.

During Emergency, the ruler was extolled but Opposition wasn't punched around: Scribe

By Rajiv Shah
A just-released book, “India: The Wrong Transition”, by a top Delhi-based scribe Anand K Sahay, has quoted “journalistic circles” to say that the Indian mainstream media – with certain “honourable exceptions” – has virtually abandoned the “practice of journalism”, and this happened following a “sting operation” that showed that “the crème de la crème of Indian journalism were only too willing, for a suitable price, to let poisonous Hindutva propaganda prevail in their news columns.”

PepsiCo warned: Withdraw cases against Gujarat farmers or face dire consequences

By Our Representative
About 200 farmers’ leaders and activists, in a letter to Dr KV Prabhu, chairperson, Protection of Plant Varieties and Farmers’ Rights Authority (PPVFRA), and Dr R C Agrawal, registrar general, PPVFRA, Ministry of Agriculture & Farmers Welfare, Government of India, have demanded that PepsiCo immediately withdraw all the legal suits it has slapped on many potato farmers in different districts of Gujarat.

Jharkhand Adivasi lynched to death by mob "chanting" Jai Shri Ram: Fact-finding team

Counterview Desk
On April 10, 2019, Prakash Lakda, a 50-year old Adivasi of Jurmu village of Gumla’s Dumri block, was lynched to death by a mob of men from the Sahu community of neighbouring Jairagi village. Three other victims from Jurmu – Peter Kerketta, Belarius Minj and Janerius Minj – sustained severe injuries due to the beating by the mob. A fact-finding team of Jharkhand Janadhikar Mahasabha (JJM), comprising of several activists and representatives of member organisations, conducted a fact-finding inquiry into the incident on April 14-15.

Bill Gates "promoting" GMO, Bt cotton, like cartels that have roots in Hitler's Germany

By Our Representative
World-renowned environmental leader and ecologist Dr Vandana Shiva has expressed concern that Bill Gates, founder of Microsoft Corporation, has joined the bandwagon of “a poison cartel of three" – Monsanto and Bayer, Syngenta and ChemChina, Dow and DuPont – all of whom allegedly have “roots in Hitler’s Germany and finding chemicals to kill people”.

Investigation shows Narmada downstream "seriously" polluted. Reason: apathy, greed

By Rohit Prajapati, Krishnakant, Swati Desai*
Our investigation regarding quality of water flowing in the Narmada river downstream of the Sardar Sarovar Dam (SSD), dated April 6, 2019, between 11.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. reiterates, what is commonly known now, that the Sardar Sarovar Project (SSP) is planned without considering its impact on the downstream Narmada River stretch of 161 kilometres, its ecology, biodiversity and fishery, and lakhs of people living close to and dependent on the river directly or indirectly. This, in turn, has led to its present disastrous state.

Emergence of a rare Dalit teacher in IIT-Kanpur "disturbed" certain faculty members

By PS Krishnan, IAS (Retd)*
Dr Subrahmanyam Sadrela, a faculty member in the Department of Aerospace Engineering, Indian Institute of Technology (IIT)-Kanpur since January 1, 2018, and one of the rare Dalit members of the faculty in IIT group of institutions, is facing the threat of revocation of his PhD thesis, and thereby also jeopardizing his job and career.

Counterview

Search This Blog