Hey its old news! My colleague was little lethargic when he replied his friend who mentioned that more than 500million Indians cannot afford food three times a day. It’s true that the statement is old, but what sector forms this 500 million. Are they Farmers, urban, rural, or how do you segregate them to find an exact figure? Statistics state that Bihar, MP, UP, and Orissa are the poorest states in the country. But a close observation reveals that these are the most resource rich states in the country. The enigma pertains to a ‘why and how’. And as an answer to this, we could find many obvious as well as hidden reasons.
One of the major factors that curtail the growth of these states is ‘Improper Rehabilitation policy’. Most of the natural resource centers are densely populated, with agriculture being their primary occupation of the people. Even though most politicians point at their own people being responsible for the slow development, there is a dissonance regarding the same. Lack of proper rehabilitation policy makes people uncertain about their future when most promises made in the past just vanished into thin air. Inability of the government to convince people with a well implemented example also makes the problem acute. Its time that government find an immediate solution for this problem as most of the core industries can be set up only in and around the natural resource centers. The most affected are the steel and mining industry which still could not acquire land for almost 30 billion dollar investment they proposed way back in 2005.
Being an agricultural society also adds to the misery of low industrial penetration in these states. In India, 60% of population depends on agriculture for their living and contribute almost 20 to 25% to the GDP. Often a healthy economy has to have an agriculture sector that contributes less to the country’s GDP. That means a country grows when it is successful in bringing out more and more people out of agriculture while increasing the productivity. The failure to implement the same resulted in people being reluctant to move away from their farm land.
The above stated reasons are also accompanied by the bureaucratic delay imposed on various projects in execution by the political despots who fear the loss of vote bank. One such example could be found in a recent incident in Nandigram district of West Bengal which resulted in the 350 million investments being grabbed by another state. Instead of finding a viable solution to keep the investment, people backed by political despots called for deindustrialization. The inability of State Governments to undertake mega scale projects also results in the backing off of private investors who generally cannot delay a proposed project as it can heavily impact their market performance. Also the poor social environment in these states brings out the defiance against the Government.
It’s crystal clear that the only solution to bring down the poverty index in India is to bring in prosperity to these poor states, to bring in new policies which can benefit both perspectives in parallel, to show people by example and by bringing in people participation by winning their heart.
One of the major factors that curtail the growth of these states is ‘Improper Rehabilitation policy’. Most of the natural resource centers are densely populated, with agriculture being their primary occupation of the people. Even though most politicians point at their own people being responsible for the slow development, there is a dissonance regarding the same. Lack of proper rehabilitation policy makes people uncertain about their future when most promises made in the past just vanished into thin air. Inability of the government to convince people with a well implemented example also makes the problem acute. Its time that government find an immediate solution for this problem as most of the core industries can be set up only in and around the natural resource centers. The most affected are the steel and mining industry which still could not acquire land for almost 30 billion dollar investment they proposed way back in 2005.
Being an agricultural society also adds to the misery of low industrial penetration in these states. In India, 60% of population depends on agriculture for their living and contribute almost 20 to 25% to the GDP. Often a healthy economy has to have an agriculture sector that contributes less to the country’s GDP. That means a country grows when it is successful in bringing out more and more people out of agriculture while increasing the productivity. The failure to implement the same resulted in people being reluctant to move away from their farm land.
The above stated reasons are also accompanied by the bureaucratic delay imposed on various projects in execution by the political despots who fear the loss of vote bank. One such example could be found in a recent incident in Nandigram district of West Bengal which resulted in the 350 million investments being grabbed by another state. Instead of finding a viable solution to keep the investment, people backed by political despots called for deindustrialization. The inability of State Governments to undertake mega scale projects also results in the backing off of private investors who generally cannot delay a proposed project as it can heavily impact their market performance. Also the poor social environment in these states brings out the defiance against the Government.
It’s crystal clear that the only solution to bring down the poverty index in India is to bring in prosperity to these poor states, to bring in new policies which can benefit both perspectives in parallel, to show people by example and by bringing in people participation by winning their heart.
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