“Biharnomics” Examined
In Alaskonomics and Bihar - Part I, I raised the point about distribution of taxes and income amongst various states in India.
This matter is at the heart of several controversies – the most recent being Narendra Modi’s demand that revenues from Gujarat should largely be spent in/on Gujarat. It also has a bearing on issues such as the anti-North-Indians movement in Maharashtra. But most importantly, this analysis is key to understanding and dealing with under-development in Bihar, Orissa, Jharkhand, AP and MP…all of them states having large swathes of land where the government has no role and no influence, forget authority.
In that sense, this discussion not only influences national economic development but also has ramifications for internal security (with regards the influence of Maoists) as well as the evolution of India’s federal structure (and the relationship between states and centre).
However, my search for data to support this analysis was not very fruitful…I did unearth some very interesting nuggets but there are still large gaps without which it is difficult to formulate any hypothesis on this sensitive subject. As the title of this post suggests, a lot of these “nuggets” had to do with Bihar and how it compares vis-à-vis other states.
The first excerpt is from an article provocatively titled, “The economic strangulation of Bihar” (originally published in 2004). In the article, Mohan Guruswamy and Abhishek Kaul, the two authors contend that: Bihar is being systematically denied even its rightful due from the Centre, let alone the additional assistance its economic and social condition deserves.
The picture they paint of Bihar is not pretty.
Why do you keep posting...