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I
GROUP EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Raj Chengappa ndia is a tale of one country but a
GROUP CREATIVE EDITOR: Nilanjan Das; GROUP PHOTO EDITOR: Bandeep Singh story of many states. The dominant
MANAGING EDITORS: Kai Jabir Friese, Rajesh Jha
CONSULTING EDITOR: Ajit Kumar Jha (Research) narrative of cooperative federalism
EXECUTIVE EDITORS: Damayanti Datta, S. Sahaya Ranjit, where the Centre and states work to-
Sandeep Unnithan, MUMBAI: M.G. Arun
DEPUTY EDITORS: Prachi Bhuchar, Uday Mahurkar, Manisha Saroop gether is now slowly moving towards one May 19, 2003
HYDERABAD: Amarnath K. Menon CHANDIGARH: Asit Jolly
of competitive, cooperative federalism.
SENIOR EDITORS: Shweta Punj, Sasi Nair, Alokparna Das
States are now competing with each other
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PHOTO RESEARCHERS: Prabhakar Tiwari (Chief Photo Researcher),
didates in these politically crucial states
Saloni Vaid (Principal Photo Researcher), are promising roads, development and
Shubhrojit Brahma (Senior Photo Researcher) November 27, 2017
CHIEF OF GRAPHICS: Tanmoy Chakraborty jobs and not talking not about religion,
ART DEPARTMENT: Sanjay Piplani (Senior Art Director);
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caste or community.
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back in 2003 when we launched the first ost uniform progress across categories.
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PRODUCTION DEPARTMENT: Harish Agarwal (Chief of Production), State of the States survey, assessing which In sharp contrast, two large states in the
Naveen Gupta (Chief Coordinator),
Vijay Kumar Sharma (Senior Coordinator) Indian state had made the most of the op- east—Odisha and West Bengal—do not
PUBLISHING DIRECTOR: Manoj Sharma portunities of liberalisation in India. Now top any of the 12 categories we have iden-
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we examined have bagged awards across dia’s population but constitute nearly 65
multiple categories. Our rankings reveal per cent of India’s GDP.
some good news and some bad news. The These are disparities that call for tre-
Volume XLIII Number 49; For the week good news first—traditional laggards in mendous political vision and a relentless
Nov 27-December 3, 2018, published on every Friday
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C OV E R S T O RY
PU NJA B
10
RETURN OF
TERROR?
Pro-Khalistan
groups are trying to
lure impressionable
WHICH STATE HAS THE BEST HEALTHCARE FACILITIES AND
Sikh youth for their
14
WHICH ONE BOASTS OF THE BEST INFRASTRUCTURE? THE cause, aided by
17TH INDIA TODAY STATE OF THE STATES-MDRA SURVEY Pakistan’s ISI
EVALUATES THE PERFORMANCE OF 29 STATES & 7 UNION
TERRITORIES ACROSS 12 KEY PARAMETERS, INCLUDING
ECONOMY, AGRICULTURE, HEALTH AND EDUCATION
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C O N T ROV E R S Y
N
o war fought without weapons leaks before adjourning proceedings Sinha, who was on the team
could be messier. The CBI’s ap- to the end of the following week. probing allegations against Asthana,
parently internecine feud—with The object of CJI Gogoi’s ire was approached the Supreme Court on
CBI chief Alok Verma and his deputy not entirely clear. It was either about Monday, November 19, with what his
Rakesh Asthana, both on gardening the leak to a website of Verma’s sealed lawyer described as “shocking revela-
leave, accusing each other of corrup- response to a report by the Central tions”. The bench, consisting of Gogoi,
tion—has spilled out into the corridors Vigilance Commission on the accu- and Justices S.K. Kaul and K.M. Jo-
of the prime minister’s office and now sations against him—which the site seph, was unmoved and denied Sinha
the halls of justice, like some out of denies was the basis of its story—or it an urgent hearing, following which
control bar brawl. The press, mean- was about the leak to national media of the content of those revelations was
while, looking on with unabashed astonishing claims by another top CBI published in the media.
glee, are shouting “fight, fight!” All officer, M.K. Sinha, that the National “This court,” thundered the af-
the unruliness has prompted a school- Security Advisor Ajit Doval, a Union fronted bench, “is not a platform for
marmish scolding from the Chief minister and Central Vigilance Com- people to come and express what they
Justice of India, Ranjan Gogoi, who missioner K.V. Chowdhury interfered want... Our effort to maintain the
spent a few minutes fuming about in the investigation of Asthana. respect of this institution is not being
UPFRONT INDEX
Facebook’s
shared by everyone.” The court also expressed con-
Transparency Problem
cern for the “dignity” of the CBI. But that particular It’s been a difficult year or so for Facebook. It failed to protect the
data of millions of users, and became the preferred receptacle
horse had long bolted the stable. Last week, West
for fake news, video nasties and all manner of manipulation—from
Bengal chief minister Mamata Banerjee joined her aggressively targeted advertising to political propaganda. Last
Andhra Pradesh counterpart Chandrababu Naidu week, the NYT reported that Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg
in withdrawing the CBI’s authority to conduct raids and COO Sheryl Sandberg neglected security concerns and turned
and investigations in their states as it saw fit, without a blind eye to the company’s covert effort to discredit critics and
having to seek permission. peddle conspiracy theories, all the while publicly feigning contrition.
The chief ministers’ joint action continued to On November 16, Facebook released its latest ‘transparency’
report. Since May, the report has included a statistic on the
give the CBI’s ‘internal’ conflict a decidedly political
hundreds of millions of pieces of content Facebook filters out
hue. Asthana has been characterised as the prime before it gets to us. It’s an attempt to show that it does care about
minister’s “blue-eyed boy”. And the government’s misinformation. The report also tells us about government requests
midnight ousting of Verma, followed by the transfers for user data and Facebook’s rate of compliance. But it’ll take more
of several CBI officers, some of whom were inves- for Facebook to recover its credibility.
tigating the charges against Asthana (also put on
leave), did nothing to stop tongues wagging. Sinha,
who was one of the officers transferred, is now being
seen as a combatant on Verma’s side. His allegations
against Doval and others have been described by
294 MILLION
Indian Facebook users
2.9 MILLION
Pieces of hate
government sources as wild and far-fetched. as of October 2018, speech removed
compared with 204 in Q3 2018
Sinha—who was investigating allegations that million Americans. In
Asthana had been paid off by Hyderabad business- Q3 2018, Facebook’s
Sinha, now
man Satish Babu
Sana to keep his name
clear of an investiga-
average revenue per
user in Asia-Pacific was
$2.67, in the US and
Canada it was $27.61
754 MILLION
Fake accounts
tion into prominent disabled by Facebook
batting for in Q3 2018, 800 million
Verma, was meat exporter Moin
16,580
in Q2 and 583 million
Qureshi—claims top
suspected government func-
in Q1; that is 2.14 billion
fake accounts, which
of being tionaries, including Indian government is almost as many
among those a minister, also took requests for user data as Facebook’s 2.3
billion active users
who helped bribes from Sana. of 23,047 accounts, Jan-
Jun 2018, says Facebook worldwide
Aircel’s C. He says the likes of Transparency Report—
Sivasankaran
64%
NSA Doval tried to second highest behind
the US, and up from
escape protect Asthana.
12,171, Jul-Dec 2017
Sinha, involved in
Facebook users
a number of major
53%
between 18 and 29
investigations, including the multi-billion-dollar years old in the US
scam perpetrated by jewellers Nirav Modi and Mehul changed privacy
Choksi, had himself apparently aroused suspicions by Of these requests settings since
resulted in Facebook Cambridge Analytica
being among those who enabled former Aircel owner scandal, says Pew
sharing ‘some data’,
C. Sivasankaran, accused of bank fraud, to escape. compared with 86% of Center; 44% have
Sivasankaran is now a citizen of the Seychelles; the US government’s deleted the app from
their phones
former finance minister P. Chidambaram and his son 42,466 requests in the
Karti are also implicated in the Aircel-Maxis case. same period
The allegations continue to fly. Will any stick?
9.4
And how will the CBI put out the inferno without
itself being reduced to ashes? The CBI’s origins are
in the Special Police Establishment set up in 1941 by
the Government of India to investigate corruption in
MILLION
Items of ‘terrorist
$17.4 BILLION
Loss in Mark
propaganda’ removed Zuckerberg’s net
the procurement of wartime supplies. It is an irony in Q2 2018; 75% due to worth this year, says
that the CBI’s potential demise, at least in this form, ‘old photos’ uploaded Bloomberg. At $55.3
before new detection
could be the consequence of the institutional cor- billion, Zuckerberg
technology; 3 million is now ‘only’ the 6th
ruption and political chicanery that has rotted from items removed in Q3; richest man in the
within a once respected institution. ■ 99.5% content removed world, down from third
before users reported it
W
hen the board meeting of the government and the central bank. experts say this is a bad idea, since the
Reserve Bank of India (RBI) “The debate on the economic capi- extent of recovery is largely dependent
ended on November 19, there tal framework cannot be a subjective on the liquidity in the system. Much of
was a sense of relief in various quarters. one, and both sides need to start talk- the non-performing assets in the bank-
The meeting was expected to be stormy, ing on how much a central bank should ing system are from such small firms,
given that several points of conten- hold,” says Ashvin Parekh, a banking and can balloon further. This was why
tion between the central bank and the consultant. They need to arrive at a the RBI has been reluctant to consider
government were to be raised. However, level of surplus that offers comfort to any loan recast scheme for small units.
as a terse note from the RBI after the both the regulator and the economy, he While the board has not come up with
marathon nine-hour meeting seemed to adds. At the same time, he was critical a special window for non-banking
suggest, the central bank yielded ground of setting up new committees on the financial companies where liquidity has
and seemed to have relented on the matter. “The tendency to form commit- dried up following the IL&FS debacle,
government’s key demands. tees is a nice arrangement to pass the it has liberalised the implementation of
One of the issues discussed before buck,” he says. the capital adequacy norms under the
the 18-member board was the govern- With regard to the government’s Basel regulatory framework. While the
ment’s demand for the transfer of RBI’s demand to ease the RBI’s prompt capital to risky assets ratio (CRAR) has
reserves, estimated at Rs 3.6 lakh crore. corrective action (PCA) norms, where been retained at 9 per cent, the board
This has been a contentious issue, and lending restrictions have been placed has extended the transition period for
was central to a much-debated speech on 11 public sector banks that had a implementing the last tranche of 0.625
by RBI Deputy Governor Viral Acharya high level of bad loans, the bank has per cent under the Capital Conservation
last month, where he drew the example agreed to have the matter examined Buffer (CCB) by one year to March 31,
of a conflict between Argentina’s gov- by its Board for Financial Supervi- 2020. CRAR is a measure of the capital
ernment and its central bank to caution sion. The RBI had wanted to focus on requirements of a bank, expressed
that government interference would recovering loans first, as the finan- in relation to its risky assets (mainly
invite “the wrath of the markets”. But cials of these banks were very weak. loans) profile. The CCB is the additional
for a government keen to maintain its capital banks have to own beyond the
fiscal discipline close to the general mandatory minimum capital require-
election amid uncertain oil prices and The government, keen ments, and the easing of the transition
a rising rupee, it was critical to be able to maintain fiscal norms will come as a relief to banks.
to dip into the RBI’s resources to bridge discipline close to the The RBI board did not discuss the
the fiscal deficit. The RBI will consti- governance structure of the central
tute an expert committee to examine
polls, wants to dip into bank. This and the issue regarding
its economic capital framework, the
the RBI’s resources to NBFCs are likely to be taken up at the
membership and terms of reference of bridge the fiscal deficit board meeting on December 14. ■
which will be jointly determined by the —M.G. Arun
BOOKS
T
he worst part of this book is However, as Sengupta notes, it was The fact is that Patel became Gan-
Gurcharan Das’s blurb: “If only Gandhi, none other, who announced as dhi’s companion-in-arms long before
Patel had lived longer, India early as 1942, in the midst of a blazing Nehru emerged as a distant speck on the
would have been spared the row between Gandhi and Nehru on how political horizon. They linked together in
excesses of the Licence Raj far to accommodate the Cripps Mission, 1917 to run the Kheda satyagraha in the
and the Kashmir problem.” This is to that his successor would be Nehru. Why immediate wake of Gandhi’s outstand-
trivialise the massive scholarship Hindol would Gandhi do this? ing success at Champaran (while a virtu-
Sengupta has brought to bear on his After all, Patel, in years, was like ally briefless Nehru was still indolently
monumental biography of Sardar Patel a brother to Gandhi; Nehru, in years, smoking cigarettes at the Allahabad bar
and reduce the theme of this book to the more like a son. But, as Sengupta ex- association). Gandhi’s intimacy with
wholly false binary of ‘Patel vs Nehru’. plains, Patel was a very ill man; Nehru, Patel thus long preceded his association
Notwithstanding the fact that, in contrast, was extremely fit. Did Gan- with Nehru. He did not need to be told of
quite unlike Nehru, the Sardar wrote dhi think the burden of leading indepen- Patel’s merits and claim to the Congress
no books, Sengupta has mined Patel’s dent India in its formative stages should presidency and, later, the premiership
numerous letters and speeches to give devolve on the shoulders of one who had of free India. Surely then, the Mahatma
us a virtually self-written portrait of this two decades of nation-building ahead would have carefully weighed his choice
great stalwart of the freedom movement, of him rather than a colleague, however before making it. Yet, Sengupta floun-
supplemented by a detailed study of valued, who would outlast the Mahatma ders in explaining why Gandhi should
different sources, to present a Patelian by less than a thousand days? Or were have so often overlooked Patel.
perspective on the “complex relation- Gandhi was entirely cognizant of
ship” between the distinguished mem- Patel’s organisational talents: he knew
bers of the vanguard who frequently had the Congress was held together and
ideological and policy differences among funded by the iron hand of the Sardar.
themselves, as well documented by Sen- He knew too that nine of the 11 Congress
gupta: Sardar Patel himself; Nehru, of provincial units sought to see Patel suc-
course; Rajaji; Azad; Rajendra Prasad; ceed Maulana Azad in 1946, thus paving
Subhas Chandra Bose and numerous the way for his eventual assuming of the
others. This menagerie of leaders of leadership of the government. What one
genius was controlled with astounding would have hoped for in such a compre-
deftness by the one who stood head and hensive study is an examination of the
shoulders above them, individually and grounds on which Gandhi overruled the
collectively, and to whom each of them overwhelming preference of the party.
deferred much of the time, however Sengupta suggests (apparently not
much they disagreed with him on specif- tongue-in-cheek) that Gandhi feared
ics—Mahatma Gandhi. Nehru revolting against being made No.
I doubt that the annals of history 2 whereas he was assured of Patel re-
anywhere in the world or at any time THE MAN WHO SAVED maining faithful whatever his decision.
have thrown up such a democratic Team INDIA: Sardar Patel and Given the numerous occasions on which
of Rivals who were permitted, even His Idea of India Nehru acquiesced to Gandhi’s diktat
encouraged, to not only disagree with by Hindol Sengupta against his own best judgement, this is
Penguin/Viking
each other but also frequently with the not history, it’s petty bias.
430 pages; `599
Mahatma himself, and yet were yoked Gandhi chose Nehru because, while
together by their quest for freedom. the party desired Patel, the country
GUEST COLUMN
SUHAS
The Politics of Name Changes
PALSHIKAR
T
he Modi government is often accused of tying new ‘external’ aggression that wounded ‘our’ selfhood, and the
name-ribbons around existing welfare schemes attempt to expunge this swathe of memory from the public
and presenting them as new. While this goes on at imagination is an attempt to heal the perceived scars of
the Centre, some BJP state governments and many in the defeat retrospectively. It is as if history got suspended circa
larger Sangh parivar have gone on a seemingly unending 12th century and resumed only in the 20th or is it the 21st,
name-changing spree. Uttar Pradesh has taken the lead, when the Modi era began?
but there are also murmurs about Ahmedabad (Gujarat) The other level at which this politics plays out is the
and local demands to rename Aurangabad and Osmanabad assertion that India is a ‘Hindu’ nation (Hindu, used in the
(Maharashtra), and the tempo is sure to pick up. religious sense) and, therefore, the basis of not only history
The past is always in the and memory, but also of identity,
repertoire of identity politics, and morality and, hence, politics must be
legends and leaders consigned to Hindu religious ideas. This is not just
the past tend to find place in the about history; it is part of the project
contested terrain of statues and to redefine our collective selfhood. The
symbols. Rulers and ruling classes urge to change names—of cities, roads
are keen to turn their legacies into and so on—is indicative of a deeper
monuments and memory. This is unease and uncertainty about the
true not only of pre-democratic more inclusive identity India adopted
rulers; in democracies too, the bid post-Independence.
to create enduring legacies and The third level at which this politics
leave imprints on public memory is bound to diversify and expand is
form an essential part of the in the retelling of the more recent
politics of culture. So, rulers and history of our national struggle and
political figures are memorialised, the building of a democratic society.
often posthumously, in currency This enterprise is already under way
notes, in statues at busy public beyond the current phase of renaming,
squares, on signboards and road and in the larger battle of ideas,
names. If anything, in the time of The current rush there will be efforts to diminish the
selfie-love, the narcissistic impulse stature of, or even remove from public
to make themselves a part of
to change names is attention, those leaders whose ideas
history is greater for our current part of the politics of the current regime abhors. Of course,
democratic rulers. Just as rulers of memory, as a way of the argument begins with the sense
pre-Independence India—British holding sway in the of injury that ‘our’ leaders were not
or Mughals or homegrown, and adequately memorialised whereas
of various religious persuasions— politics of culture ‘their’ leaders were everywhere. But the
ensured they live for posterity real issue is not the space or memory
through memory, so do the estate Nehru or Deendayal Upadhyaya
rulers today want to create occupy, it is which ideas should form
new memories. What is happening in our midst may the ideological basis for defining India’s collective identity.
be understood as the politics of memory, the politics of That project won’t stop at undoing the memory of Mughal
symbols, at multiple levels, as an easy way to hold sway in or Muslim rulers, it will extend to erasing the sense of a
the politics of culture. more inclusive Indianness, by presenting a false claim that
One level of this politics is to attempt to erase parts only Hindutva is true Indianness. ■
of our history: by changing Muslim-sounding names
or names given by Muslim rulers, the current attempt Suhas Palshikar edits the journal Studies in Indian Politics
is to obliterate the history of more than six centuries. and is co-director of the Lokniti Programme of the
That period is seen by the current regime as a period of Centre for the Study of Developing Societies (CSDS)
I
s there a hidden BJP hand behind the ongoing discord in the Mulayam Singh Yadav
family? Samajwadi Party workers say the evidence is overwhelming. The Yogi Adityanath chargesheet. Doesn’t matter
government had earlier announced a CBI probe into a riverfront project in Lucknow now, does it?
conceived when Mulayam’s younger brother Shivpal Singh was irrigation minister. There
has been no sign of the probe for over a year now. The state government recently allotted
Shivpal a bungalow earlier given to Bahujan Samaj Party chief Mayawati. BJP leaders,
meanwhile, continue to taunt SP president Akhilesh Yadav for his poor treatment of Shivpal Yedd of State
and Mulayam. Shivpal’s newly launched Pragatisheel Samajwadi Party (Lohia) plans to he untimely demise
contest the Lok Sabha election. Shivpal’s son Aditya is to contest the Kannauj seat held by
Akhilesh’s wife Dimple. Shivpal is to contest elections from the Firozabad seat currently
T of Union minister
Ananth Kumar has left
held by Akshay Yadav, son of his cousin Ramgopal Yadav and an Akhilesh acolyte. Expect B.S. Yeddyurappa the BJP’s
many more instalments of this family saga in the run-up to 2019. unchallenged leader within
Karnataka. But the state unit
president is finding the task
of strengthening the party
THACKERAYS TAMED for the 2019 general election
tough. The party’s poor
The cousins’ scramble for the limelight, one via
performance in the recent
Ayodhya, the other through television
bypolls has prompted calls
A one lakh crowd had At the peak of his career, Maharash- for his replacement with a
been projected for tra Navnirman Sena chief Raj Thac- younger leader. Yeddyurappa,
Sena chief Uddhav keray had boycotted national Hindi 75, maintains he is the
Thackeray’s and English channels. With the MNS “undisputed leader”. Of the
November 25 rally in rendered politically irrelevant, his Margdarshak Mandal, his
Ayodhya. It was to be absence is not even noticed these detractors hope.
Uddhav’s first major programme days. So, his appearance
outside Maharashtra. But with Sainiks on a Marathi channel
unwilling to venture outside home on Raksha Bandhan
turf, the mega rally is now set to be a and Children’s Day
series of small meetings, a puja at the piqued curiosity. A
ghat and a media interaction. comeback?
YASBANT NEGI
—Sandeep Unnithan with Ashish Misra, Kiran D. Tare, Sahil Joshi, Aravind Gowda
PUNJAB
The
Return of
TERROR?
Khalistani activists are trying to
lure impressionable Sikh youth for
their cause, aided by Pakistan's ISI
BY ASIT JOLLY
T
HE NIRANKARI CONGREGATION at Adliwal village CALL FOR
outside Amritsar was at its peak given that it was a par- PLEBISCITE
STATES IN
MOTION
India’s states are now determining their own destiny
and forging individual paths to progress
By Kaushik Deka
O
n November 19, Prime positioning themselves as CEOs of their it has emerged as a comprehensive and
Minister Narendra states. They have the micro details of robust barometer of the performance of
Modi, addressing a their state on their fingertips, they lead Indian states. This year, we expanded
select gathering of from the front and are ready to adopt the attributes across categories (see
Cabinet ministers, innovative, even unconventional means methodology) and, after consulting
foreign diplomats, to find solutions to problems. experts, assigned diferent weightage
industry leaders and senior bureaucrats From ease of indulging in corrup- to each category. The states were evalu-
in Delhi, said the Union government tion once, the emphasis today has ated for a total score of 2,000 across
was working towards doubling the size shifted towards ease of doing business. categories. Even for attributes, we
of the Indian economy to $5 trillion According to the Confederation of Ind- assigned diferent weightage. The logic
as soon as possible and placing India ian Industry (CII), the performance of was simple—geographical and social
among the top 50 countries in the states in the World Bank and Depart- factors often give unfair advantage to
World Bank’s Ease of Doing Busi- ment of Industrial Policy and Promo- certain states if the same weightage is
ness ranking. To achieve this goal, the tion (DIPP) ease of doing business attributed to all the categories. For in-
prime minister said, his government rankings reflects the remarkable prog- stance, Delhi or an industrial state such
was strengthening the “cooperative ress made in improving the investment as Maharashtra may score low against
competitive federalism” framework for climate in the past four years. “The Himachal Pradesh, Kerala or Assam
which it was continuously in discussion innovative partnership between the on environment. So, to neutralise any
with states to streamline regulatory central and state governments and the advantage, categories that reflected
approvals and expedite clearances. spirit of cooperative and competitive a state’s own efort more were given
Driven by this push from the top, federalism in facilitating investments higher weightage.
Indian states are fast emerging as across the country is yielding notable This is not to say environment is
growth-driven units intent on outper- results,” CII president Rakesh Bharti less important than other categories. In
forming each other in the race to reach Mittal said recently. fact, states’ performance on environ-
the top in terms of economic develop- In this context, the INDIA TODAY ment has become even more critical as
ment and social welfare. Chief min- State of the States study has become India, according to The Yale Univer-
isters, cutting across party lines, are more relevant than ever. In its 17th year, sity’s Environment Performance Index
BEST MOST
CATEGORY PERFORMING IMPROVED
STATE STATE
2018, stands at the bottom of the Global
Environment Performance Index (EPI)
rankings today. In 2016, the country Overall Tamil Nadu Assam
was ranked 141 out of 180 countries.
In 2018, it has slipped to the 177th
Economy Maharashtra Assam
position. With national capital Delhi Infrastructure Gujarat Jharkhand
gasping for fresh air, Kolkata emerging
as one of the most polluted states and
Agriculture Punjab Madhya Pradesh
Assam named as home to the country’s Education Himachal Pradesh Bihar
second most polluted rivers, environ-
mental degradation is not restricted to Health Jammu & Kashmir Assam
specific cities, zones or regions any- Law & Order Tamil Nadu Tamil Nadu
more. If the political leadership and
social awareness don’t work in tandem, Governance Rajasthan Telangana
development will be meaningless. Inclusive
Sixteen years ago, when INDIA
Development Chhattisgarh Uttar Pradesh
TODAY recognised the increasing role
of states in India’s transformation and Entrepreneurship Haryana Karnataka
started the ambitious task of measuring
the pace of their growth, the Planning
Environment Kerala Madhya Pradesh
Commission determined the road map Cleanliness Kerala Chhattisgarh
of the country’s growth. The states
followed the plan New Delhi chalked
Tourism Tamil Nadu Andhra Pradesh
out. Today, the states are masters
of their own destiny or, at the least,
moving in that direction. The Centre-
state relationship has moved from that of taxes to states) has to include some The disparity in the growth of
of donor and receiver. Now it’s more performance-based criteria so that states is one of the biggest challenges
performance-based reward. In fact, those states which have done better on before the country. The uneven growth
NITI Aayog has pitched for a formula certain parameters are not punished,” has spawned several narratives—north
for the central government to share its NITI Aayog vice-chairman Rajiv Ku- versus south, coastal versus mainland,
divisible pool of taxes with states in a mar recently said. He, however, warns stable government versus frequent re-
way that does not go against the inter- that it cannot be done overnight and gime changes. However, development
est of states that have performed well in has to be implemented gradually, con- doesn’t always follow these binaries
terms of social development. “I think it sidering the political sensitivity around as the INDIA TODAY State of the States
is clear that the formula (for devolution resource allocation in a federal set-up. study has reflected on multiple occa-
RBI, MOSPI, DISE, NITI AAYOG, AISHE, CMIE DIPP, NFHS, TRAI, multiple Union ministries, PSUs, Census reports
STATES
STATE OF
THE STATES
ESSAY METHODOLOGY
he 2018 India Today State of the
FAST MOVERS
T States study was conducted
by leading research agency
Marketing and Development
Research Associates (MDRA). The states
were ranked under two broad segments—
Best Performing and Most Improved.
States at the lowest rungs of the best performing In the best performing category, the
category are showing speedier improvement latest performance of a state specific
to a category based on recent data was
Most Best examined. In the most improved category,
STATE Improved Performing improvement of a state over the past five
Rank Rank years based on outcome-based posi-
tive changes were examined. In order to
ASSAM 1 19 have a fair comparison, states were
divided into big and small. States with a
JAMMU & KASHMIR 2 16 geographical area of over 35,000 square
kilometres and population of more than 5
MADHYA PRADESH 3 12
million were categorised as big while the
UTTAR PRADESH 4 14 rest were clubbed as small. The perfor-
mances of the states were examined
CHHATTISGARH 5 17 under 13 categories—overall, economy,
infrastructure, agriculture, education,
JHARKHAND 6 21
health, law and order, governance, inclu-
BIHAR 7 20 sive development, entrepreneurship, en-
vironment, cleanliness and tourism. Each
category was given diferent weightage.
Data was sourced from diferent reliable
Survey 2016-17, which studied with INDIA TODAY last week, As- databases under various attributes—105
internal migration patterns, less sam Chief Minister Sarbananda for best performing ranks, 80 for most
affluent states see more ‘out- Sonowal claimed that private com- improved ranks—for each category. More
migration’ while the most affluent panies ofered jobs to around one than 20 experts—academia, represen-
states are the largest recipients. So lakh youth in the past two years tatives from NITI Aayog, think-tanks,
south Indian states such as Tamil while his government absorbed research organisations, sociologists and
Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala have 55,000 people. economists were consulted to determine
attracted the highest number of Unfortunately, politically the attributes and weightage for catego-
migrants while out-migration rates motivated rhetoric and unsub- ries and attributes. The data collected for
have increased in MP, Bihar and stantiated information spreading each attribute was cleaned, normalised
UP. The last two account for more across social media have often led and standardised. Most recent data for
than half of inter-state migrants. to xenophobic skirmishes against each state—2016-17 and 2015-16—were
In the five years ended 2016, an migrants in several Indian states. analysed for evaluation of best perform-
average of nine million people But what gets drowned in the ing states while compounded annual
migrated between states every year noise of prime time and headlines growth rates (CAGR) on each attribute
for the past five years were used to rank
for education or work, according in big type is the story of socio-
most improved states. Based on the
to the Economic Survey 2016-17. economic integrity propelled by
weightage determined for each attribute,
That’s almost double the inter-state migration. For instance, in Surat,
rankings in each category were arrived
migration recorded in 2001-2011 migrants make up 70 per cent of
at. Categorywise scores were used to
and captured by Census 2011. the city’s workforce. Municipal
arrive at overall best performing and most
Interestingly, out-migration authorities in Surat are catering improved states. The MDRA research
dipped in Assam, perhaps a reflec- to the city’s migrants by running team included Abhishek Agrawal (Ex-
tion of the growing opportunities over 120 special schools for them. ecutive Director), Abnish Jha (Associate
in the state. No wonder then that India’s progress is fuelled by Project Director), Shamik Bandyopadhyay
it has become the most improved such stories and the INDIA TODAY (Assistant Research Manager) and Rajan
large state, based on its perform- State of the States study is an ac- Chauhan (Research Executive).
ance across 12 categories in the knowledgment and celebration of For detailed categories, attributes and
past five years. In an interview such inspirational nuggets. weightages, please visit
www.indiatoday.in
CHENNAI
SUPER
EXPRESS
Tamil Nadu featured among the top 10
large states in 11 out of 12 categories; the
state’s welfare schemes were key
By Amarnath K. Menon
A
new controversial block- “Political parties, in the guise
buster, Sarkar, starring of helping the poor, have fostered a
popular hero Vijay, dependence syndrome in the state.
seems to suggest that Meanwhile, they source sub-standard
populism has no place material as consumer goods through SAFETY DRIVE
in Tamil Nadu. In their cronies to help line their pockets Mounted police
patrolling the Marina
reality, this is a state that thrives on and drain public funds. It all reeks of Beach in Chennai
nurturing its constituents with scandal and corruption,” says Prof.
subsidies and nuanced welfare Ramu Manivannan of the Department
schemes. While the mid-day meal of Political Science and Public Admin-
programme for school children and istration, University of Madras. Econo- development through inclusive growth.
social security (pension) for the mists and state planners, though, The aim is to rid society of inner ten-
elderly—introduced in the 1980s by the perceive the subsidy culture diferently. sions that may surface in the form of
late M.G. Ramachandran, founder of “The state’s record in implementing communalism or extremism,” explains
the ruling AIADMK—were pioneering welfare schemes has contributed to the a senior government oicial on condi-
initiatives in the country, the state is extremely low rate of multi-dimension- tion of anonymity. “The switching of
now implementing many more, some al poverty, particularly in areas such as parties in power,” he goes on to empha-
even borrowed from other states, health, education and living standards. sise, “has always been without losing
through 31 government departments. It makes a meaningful diference to sight of the fundamentals to ensure
Ofering freebies packaged as the quality of life of the poor,” Paul Ap- Tamil Nadu’s growth.”
welfare goods hit new highs between pasamy, a former director of the Ma- Tamil Nadu is already the second
2006 and 2016. Both the AIADMK dras School of Economics, points out, largest contributor to India’s GDP, and
and DMK governments pursued this though he admits that sub-standard is among only eight states to record
line keenly to reel in voters. While the consumer durables as a poverty allevia- poverty reduction at a rate higher than
DMK (2006-11) distributed 11.6 mil- tion measure is questionable. the all-India average. The state’s per
lion free colour television sets (spend- “The state’s most vital function is capita income, at current prices, is
ing Rs 3,687 crore), the AIADMK maintaining public order. Unless there Rs 1,53,263 (2016 -17), the third high-
regime that followed (2011-16) handed is peace, we cannot have social and est among large states. Tamil Nadu’s
out 11.7 million fans, mixies and economic growth. Which is why Tamil Human Development Index is second
grinders at a cost of Rs 7,686 crore. Nadu’s growth model seeks to achieve among large states and its socioeco-
THE PEACE
PROCESS
INITIATIVES THAT HELPED
MAINTAIN LAW AND ORDER
‘People’s
welfare is key’
Chief Minister EDAPPADI K. PALANISWAMI
spoke to AMARNATH K. MENON on how the state
stole the show in this year’s survey. Excerpts:
MAKING OF A
RICH BREW
Employment opportunities, industrial expansion and a
medical scheme targeted at 92 per cent of its
population have put Assam on a fast growth trajectory
By Kaushik Deka
O
ne of the languages natural that youngsters are staying
that saw a significant back home,” he says. The CM quickly
surge in south belts out numbers to substantiate his
India—according to claims—the Advantage Assam summit
the Language Census held in February this year resulted in
2011 data released in an investment promise of Rs 79,000
June—was Assamese. This finding crore of which Rs 8,000 was invested
was not surprising because, every within five months. For instance, phar-
year, Assam sees a massive outbound maceutical company Sun Pharma has
migration of job-seeking youth from invested Rs 750 crore in the state to set
the state. That’s the pattern of up a production line that will boost the
inter-state migration in India—people company’s capacity to manufacture
move from less affluent states to the liquid vials, injectables, eye drops and given an assistance of Rs 25,000 to
most affluent states in search of tablets. Another investment of Rs 200 explore livelihood opportunities.
livelihood, and Assam is one of the crore is in the pipeline. “It has generat- The increasingly peaceful envi-
lowest-ranked states in the INDIA ed direct employment for 1,000 people ronment and a rising entrepreneurial
TODAY State of the States study in and indirect employment for 3,000,” streak, supported by government
absolute performance. says Sonowal. initiatives, have led to small but signifi-
However, the Economic Sur- FMCG giant Patanjali Ayurveda cant changes in the rural economy. The
vey 2016-17, which studied internal has promised an investment of state is one of the top three performers
migration patterns, had an interesting Rs 1,300 crore and direct employment in organic farming in the Northeast.
revelation—Assam is one of the states to 5,000 people in Assam. The CM This month, vegetables sourced from
which saw a dip in outbound migration claims more than one lakh youth have various districts were directly exported
in recent years. Chief Minister Sar- been absorbed in the private sector in to Dubai’s markets. In October, Assam
bananda Sonowal ofers his explana- the past two-and-a-half years, while sent vegetables to London and Doha.
tion behind this positive development. his government has appointed 55,000 The recognition for the state’s
“Employment opportunities in the youth through a merit-based recruit- upward journey came from N.K. Singh,
state are growing because of a trans- ment system. In the rural areas, the chairman of the 15th Finance Commis-
parent government recruitment system government has set up 126,000 self- sion, “In the last two-three years, As-
and increased private investment. It’s help groups, each of whom has been sam has achieved significant progress
GROWTH
SURGE
12% compound annual growth
rate of Assam’s GSDP between
2011-12 and 2016-17
BIJU BORO
A
Lancet study titled, ‘The
Global Burden of Disease 6 Jharkhand 1,152.8
Study’, released in May 7 Bihar 1,149.4
says that India ranks
8 Andhra Pradesh 1,114
145th among 195 countries in terms
of healthcare quality and accessibility, 9 Karnataka 1,093.8
and Uttar Pradesh and Assam clock
10 Odisha 1,053.3
the worst performance in India. As
per the study, India performed poorly 11 Rajasthan 1,042.5
in tackling cases of tuberculosis, heart 12 Himachal Pradesh 1,026.8
diseases and cancer, among others.
Assam also faces an acute short- 13 West Bengal 1,020.3
age of doctors. The state has only three 14 Telangana 994.8
doctors for 10,000 patients, which is
woefully short of the World Health 15 Haryana 967.5
Organization prescribed minimum 16 Tamil Nadu 966.3
ratio of 1:1,000. Health minister
Himanta Biswa Sarma, who also holds 17 Gujarat 918.8
the finance portfolio, while tabling 18 Maharashtra 899.9
the state’s budget for 2017-18, asserted
19 Uttarakhand 888.9
that the state was targeting to produce
1,200 doctors annually by setting up 20 Punjab 885.2
new medical colleges. Assam has been
21 Kerala 846.3
running a scheme wherein the govern-
ment bears the expenses of surgery at
the Narayana Hrudayalaya in Ben-
galuru, Kolkata and Guwahati for
children who have been recommended 15 districts in Assam. To be set up at The cashless scheme will cover 92 per
surgery for congenital heart disease. an investment of Rs 1,910 crore, these cent of Assam’s population. It will
The scheme covers families with an an- centres will start functioning from be one of the largest such universal
nual income of less than Rs 6 lakh, and mid-2020. health assurance schemes in the world
includes the airfare and accommoda- However, the real game-changer catering to both Below Poverty Line
tion of the child and one guardian. could be the Atal Amrit Abhiyan (BPL) and Above Poverty Line (APL)
The Assam government has also launched in April by Vice President people. The state government has ear-
joined hands with the Tata Trust M. Venkaiah Naidu. It’s a healthcare marked Rs 400 crore for the scheme
to roll out an elaborate cancer care scheme of the Assam government that in FY 2018-19. “This scheme will cre-
programme in the state. The joint ofers free medical care of up to Rs 2 ate a universal healthcare system that
venture will result in the setting up lakh for every individual from families could be a model for other states,” says
of 17 cancer treatment centres across with annual income below Rs 5 lakh. Sonowal. ■
HIGH STREET
Phoenix Mall, Mumbai,
is one of the biggest THE BIG MOVES
hypermarkets in the state
The state did not allow coop-
erative institutions to take loan
from the government and keep
the amount in their savings
account as it led to a situation
where the money rolled in the
market instead of benefitting a
particular organisation
I
n 2016-17, Maharashtra reg- intention’ into real investments.
nies—3,20,957—in 2016 in the
istered 10 per cent economic State finance minister Sudhir
country
growth, as per its economy sur- Mungantiwar attributes the state’s
vey report. Having received 94 success in improving its economy to Before GST, Maharashtra’s
per cent of the annual average three characteristics: PQS, or Plan- share in India’s services sector
rainfall, the state recorded an agricul- ning, Quality and Speed. For the next was 19.5 per cent. It has reached
tural growth of 12.5 per cent during year, growth is expected to be at 7.3 close to 50 per cent now
the same period while the industry and per cent in spite of the huge amount
services sectors registered growth of spent on the farmers’ loan waiver as
6.5 and 9.7 per cent, respectively. well as rain deficiency. The state’s
The state’s decision to reduce the revenue has increased by 39.5 per cent aged to save around Rs 11,000 crore
number of permissions from 75 to 23 in the first quarter of this year as com- by identifying ghost farmers’ accounts
to start new businesses has also paid pared with the first quarter of last year and by linking the loan waiver scheme
of. During the past four years, it has because of the Goods and Service Tax to mandatory disclosure of identity
received foreign investment worth (GST). The state also earned revenue of the beneficiaries. Further, as more
Rs 3,94,886 crore, which, according worth Rs 25,742 crore between April than 50 per cent of the beneficiary
to the RBI, is 31 per cent of the total and June 2017. This year, it earned farmers did not opt for the one-time
foreign investment in the country. Rs 35,915 crore during the same settlement scheme, the state did not
Industry minister Subhash Desai says period. The state faced its biggest pay them the loan waiver amount.
the state is at the number one position financial challenge in 2017 when it “There is no dearth of money, but
not only in getting foreign investment, announced a loan waiver of Rs 32,000 we have focused on austerity,” says
but also in converting ‘investment crore for farmers. However, it man- Mungantiwar. ■
P
unjab has an inherent total GVA of the country. This, when land
advantage when it comes to the state’s rural population is a mere 2
agriculture. Besides its per cent of India’s population. Rs 2 lakh loan
waiver given to each
fertile soils rejuvenated by A 2014 study by agricultural
small and marginal
rivers flowing down from economists H.S. Shergill and Varinder farmer
the Himalayan and Shivalik ranges, Sharma estimates that between 1972
the state has also benefited from an and 2012, Punjab tripled its wheat Campaign launched
extensive canal network as well as a production and increased its paddy to educate farmers
climate that favours multiple crops. harvest by 12 times. Milk production about the judicious
But perhaps the single-biggest also quadrupled. During this period, use of pesticides
contributor is its peasantry that’s been Punjab’s contribution to the national in order to protect the
quick to adapt to new concepts. foodgrains pool rose 21-fold, from 0.9 state’s basmati exports
Working with a mere 3 per cent of million tonnes to 19 million tonnes.
the country’s net sown area, Punjab’s The past 19 months under the Cap-
farmers have successively delivered tain Amarinder Singh-led Congress
bountiful harvests that account for 19 government have witnessed record
per cent of India’s wheat and 12 per wheat and paddy harvests. Foodgrains in severe indebtedness. Much of this
cent of its paddy production. For every production in 2017-18 peaked to 31.7 is consequent to crop (cotton) failures
hectare, the Punjabi hinterland pro- million tonnes. This paddy season, because of spurious pesticides, suspect
duces more than 17 quintals of wheat too, central and state agencies had seeds and procurement prices failing to
and 14 quintals of paddy, which is high- procured 15.03 million metric tonnes keep pace with the cost of farm inputs.
er than the national average. Also, the of paddy till November 11. Assuming oice in March 2017,
agricultural GVA (Gross Value Added) But despite successive bumper har- Amarinder announced a farm loan
in Punjab accounts for 4 per cent of the vests, Punjab’s farmers have remained waiver, pledging to bear liabilities (up
to Rs 2 lakh) that small and marginal
farmers owed to cooperative banks.
To date, 382,000 farmers have been
provided relief totalling Rs 1,736 crore.
The government has assured marginal
farmers waivers worth Rs 1,185 crore
owed to commercial banks. State laws
have been amended whereby banks can
no longer dispossess farmers of their
land or have them arrested for failing
to repay loans.
Admitting loan waivers are not a
final solution, Amarinder says “strug-
gling farmers nonetheless need to be
supported”. “There’s a lasting solution
PRABHJOT GILL
HARVEST
GOLD Not just augmenting farm productivity
and income, the state has also made big
strides in cleaning up the environment
By Rahul Noronha
SPOILS FROM
THE SOIL Potato
crop in Shajapur
E
ven as poor agricultural Raisen, Hoshangabad, Harda, Bhopal, to irrigation-intensive high yielding
growth compels the Sehore, Vidisha and Narsinghpur. varieties of wheat, which in turn has
Union and state govern- However, the state government has enhanced production and incomes.
ments to plan revival failed to resolve legal issues, with bas- A key intervention has been the
strategies for the mati from MP in danger of not being availability of farm credit at zero per
politically sensitive recognised as basmati paddy at all. cent interest since 2012-13, making it
sector, at least one state has bucked On other fronts, though, such as in- easier for farmers to invest in seeds,
the trend for years. In fact, Madhya creasing the area under irrigation, the fertilisers and mechanised tilling
Pradesh’s agricultural growth story government appears to have done well. and sowing. Earlier, farm loans from
has ofered other states a template to The area under irrigation has increased state cooperative banks were avail-
get their act together. from 7.5 lakh hectare to 40 lakh able at 5 per cent interest. “About 5.4
Though sceptics have often ques- hectare. Completion million Kisan Credit
tioned the claims made by the MP gov- of pending irrigation Cards have been issued
ernment, a string of Krishi Karmanya
Awards by the Centre has come as an
projects and successful
implementation of a
Madhya Pradesh to farmers in the state.
In 2016-17, nearly Rs
endorsement of the state’s achieve-
ments. Large tracts of land along the
World Bank-aided water
restructuring project
produces 29% 12,000 crore was dis-
bursed,” says minister
Narmada have been brought under
basmati rice cultivation in the past
have paid dividends.
Farmers have been able
of India’s pulses, for cooperation Vishwas
Sarang. The state-run
decade or so. The crop shift will throw
up critical challenges in the future,
to shift to two crops
and, in many instances,
53% of soy- cooperative banks ac-
count for about 70 per
such as depletion of the water table to three crop cycles, in bean and 28% cent of the Kisan Credit
but, for now, it has ushered in prosper- a calendar year. It has Cards distributed.
ity among farmers in the districts of also enabled a shift of oilseeds With about 95,000
ON A HIGH
Patratu valley
near Ranchi
FEELING
CONNECTED
Six-lane Ring Road in
Ranchi
Govindpur–Sahibganj
Road project in northeast
Jharkhand. Is being dubbed
Lifeline of Santhal Parganas
30 district court, 20
F
or a state that was created key to the socio-economic develop- connected with all-weather roads.
with much expectation ment of the state. “Better connectiv- Aware that land was a sensitive
in 2000, Jharkhand did ity is a must for eicient delivery of issue in the state but at the same time
not live up to its prom- public services and implementation crucial for infrastructure, necessary
ise for 14 years after it of development programmes,” he reforms were introduced to facilitate
came into being. The state saw five says. According to the Jharkhand acquisition and transfer to industrial
chief ministers in that time, none of Economic Survey 2017-18, 25,200 of and government projects. The land
whom completed a term in oice, the state’s 36,827 villages have been reforms department now hands over
and three stints of President’s rule. acquired land to the Jharkhand In-
The Raghubar Das-led government dustrial Area Development Author-
is the first stable one Jharkhand has ity (JIADA), the nodal agency for
seen, helping it attend to the task of
development. “Jharkhand has miles to providing infrastructural facilities
in industrial areas. A total of 2,817
From just 7,939 km of new
roads the road construction depart-
go. While we are happy to hectares of land has been transferred
to JIADA, which in turn has already
ment built in the 14 years since
Jharkhand’s creation, the state made
have successfully improved allotted 825 ha to various projects.
Over 980 ha has been handed over to
rapid strides in the pace of road
development, adding 4,610 km new
infrastructure in the state, the National Highways Authority of
India, helping it lay 909 km of roads
roads in the past four years. This our goal is to scale it up and in the past four years.
means 3.3 km of road length is being Jharkhand has also centralised
built every day on an average in the transform the state into all construction activity, entrusting
past four years compared to the 1.6
km daily average of the first 14 years. one of the best in India” the Jharkhand State Building Con-
struction Corporation with the task.
According to Chief Minister Ra- Raghubar Das Work is currently on for projects
ghubar Das, rural connectivity was Chief Minister, Jharkhand worth Rs 4,000 crore. ■
BIG MOVES
A CLASS APART, Akhand Shik-
sha Jyoti—Mere
Himachal Pradesh
has 2,846
schools per 100,000
people in the 10-14
VIRTUAL LEAP
Mandi district collector R.M. Thakur
age group, the high-
interacts with school students
est in large states
D
espite the alternating The state has been decidedly standard one. Training to reorient pri-
succession of BJP and generous with its education budget. mary teachers for the purpose is over.
Congress governments, For instance, it spends Rs 64.79 crore Under the Atal Awasiya Vidya Ken-
the one thing regimes in annually for every 10,000 children dra scheme, fully equipped residential
Himachal Pradesh have in the 6-14 age group—the highest in schools will be opened in all 68 assem-
been consistent about is the progres- the country. By ensuring proactive bly constituencies, half of which will be
sively improving status of education. hiring of teachers and their career reserved for girls. “We intend to make
And things are no diferent under the advancement, the state has achieved these [boarding schools] capable of
Jai Ram Thakur-led BJP government. a student-teacher ratio of 11:1—the standing up to the best,” says Kumar.
From being an almost illiterate best in the country. Even better: 45 Another successful exercise,
state at Independence, Himachal per cent of the children enrolled in emulated by other states is the periodic
Pradesh is now over 90 per cent liter- educational institutions are girls. state-level assessment surveys (SLAS)
ate. This, education secretary Arun Kumar says a brief dip in primary for real-time mapping of learning levels
Kumar says, comes from consistent enrolment was quickly addressed in schools. Kumar says the education
100 per cent enrolment at the primary through measures like starting pre- department is focused on enhancing
level and 80 per cent in secondary school classes in 3,300 state-run the ‘happiness quotient’ of students
school. Himachal, he adds, is the first schools. To standardise curricula, the through their involvement in commu-
state to achieve a gross enrolment Thakur government has decided to nity programmes, yoga and introduc-
ratio (GER) of 54 per cent. introduce NCERT textbooks from ing ‘school bag-free’ days. ■
SONU KISHAN
SELFIE TIME
Students pose for a photo
with Chief Minister
Nitish Kumar
W
ith a young popula- upper primary, the dropout rate fell on their education loans; for others,
tion (15-24 years) of by 12.9 percentage points in the same it would be 4 per cent,” says Kumar.
around 17.5 million, period, from 55.1 per cent to 42.2 According to the chief minister, after
or almost 17 per cent, per cent. The dropout rates of girls significantly raising enrolment at the
Bihar, under Chief are lower than of boys at all levels of primary and upper primary levels, the
Minister Nitish Kumar, set education education (elementary, secondary and government’s next aim is to increase
as a priority sector early on. Statistics higher secondary). the gross enrolment ratio (GER) for
show that the eforts have paid of. For Expenditure on education in- higher education—currently 14.3 per
instance, the state’s literacy rate shot cent against the national average of 24
up from 47 per cent in 2001 to 61.8 per per cent—to 30 per cent.
cent in 2011. Bihar’s decadal (2001-
2011) growth rate in literacy has been
“We have accorded top When it comes to higher educa-
tion, Bihar has 23 universities, includ-
the highest among all states. Also, the
17.9 per cent jump in female literacy
priority to education. ing an open university. There are 15
research institutes as well. In 2016,
during the period is much higher than Our goal is to create a the state had 276 government colleges
the 10.9 per cent registered for the and 478 local colleges. The number
entire country. system that will help of engineering colleges rose from 10
This is not all. Dropout rates in
Bihar have fallen steadily in recent Bihar’s students in 2013 to 28 in 2016. As many as 87
colleges and seven universities enjoy
years. At the primary level, the
dropout rate fell from 39.3 per cent
realise their potential” accreditation from the National As-
sessment and Accreditation Council
in 2010-11 to 25 per cent in 2015-16— Nitish Kumar (NAAC). There are 60 training insti-
down by over 14 percentage points. In Chief Minister, Bihar tutes to train school teachers. ■
THE
HEALING
TOUCH
The state spends Rs 23.3
crore on healthcare per
100,000 persons—the second
highest among large states
ABID BHAT
By Moazum Mohammad
S
rinagar’s 254-bed GB Pant
Hospital, the Valley’s only INFANT MORTALITY RATE DOCTORS PER PATIENTS SERVED PER
children’s hospital, used to be PER 1,000 LIVE BIRTHS 100,000 PERSONS GOVERNMENT HOSPITAL
a virtual death trap for
infants until 2012. That year 93 19.50 88.27 73
alone saw 787 infant deaths, sparking MATERNAL HOSPITALS BEDS YEARS,
public outrage. The deaths were widely MORTALITY RATE PER PER 100,000 PER LIFE
seen to be a consequence of a lack of 100,000 LIVE BIRTHS PERSONS HOSPITAL EXPECTANCY
hygiene coupled with abysmal medical
infrastructure and shortage of doctors
and paramedical staf.
The change since that fateful year
has been nothing short of revolution- Health Mission (NHM). He says the mental change” by extending health-
ary. The paediatric hospital that serves hospital has been able to spend Rs 21 care to populations in remote areas.
the region’s seven million residents has crore on equipment, manpower and “They did not have access to healthcare
been given a complete makeover. The monetary benefits to patients. This facility, especially in winters. The
old neonatal intensive care unit with includes the Rs 30,000 annual spend NHM has provided remote areas with
five, often non-functional, life support on free medicines and transportation doctors,” he says. Bolstered by the posi-
units has been replaced with 21 state- on every neonate. tive outcomes, the health authorities
of-the-art ventilators. The hospital now The IMR has registered a sharp de- have set fresh targets—to bring down
has new diagnostic labs, an oxygen cline across the state from 34 per 1,000 the IMR from 24 to under 10 by 2022.
plant and a complete contingent of live births in 2016 to just 24. That, For this, even district and sub-district
medical professionals specialising in rather impressively, is lower than the hospitals are being equipped with
child healthcare. All this and the newly national average of 37 infant deaths per neonatal stabilisation units. Five new
spruced-up premises, haves signifi- 1,000 live births. In fact, J&K is among medical colleges in the districts will
cantly reduced the infant mortality the three top-ranking states for annual soon be operational, says state health
rate (IMR) by over 50 per cent. incremental performance as per the secretary Atal Dulloo, adding that two
According to the medical super- NITI Aayog’s ‘Healthy States, Progres- fully equipped cancer institutes are
intendent at the hospital, Kawarjeet sive India’ health index report. also planned in the Valley and Jammu
Singh says, most of the turnaround can Masood Rashid, a consultant doc- at a total cost of Rs 120 crore. The state
be attributed to the funding received tor at the state health department, too, government will also shortly announce
under the Centre’s flagship National lauds the NHM for ushering in “monu- a new health policy. ■
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T TH
ATES RAJASTHAN Best performing large state in Governance
STATE OF
THE STATES
AT HOME
ries of 54 schemes.
The government has meticulously
integrated this enormous exercise to
a larger governance model, largely
A digital benefits transfer scheme becomes a harbinger of
reducing government oicials’ inter-
change. Now e-governance has transformed rural Rajasthan actions with the beneficiaries. The
e-governance model covers 10,000
By Rohit Parihar
panchayats where the state has spent
Rs 4 crore on an average, a figure
W
hen Chief Minister Va- which does not include the roads with
sundhara Raje named
a scheme in 2007 DIRECT BENEFIT drains constructed in the majority
of villages in the past three years.
after Bhamashah,
a man synonymous
TRANSFER Some sarpanches and even MLAs
and ministers resisted the plan, but
with charity (he gave his wealth to Online direct transfer Raje pushed it through two years
Maharana Pratap to aid the fight to beneficiaries extended to ago. It succeeded because the BJP
against Akbar), even she wouldn’t have majority of government welfare government had made a certain level
thought how much it would transform schemes, including pension, of school education compulsory along
governance a decade later. Initially, PDS, MNREGA and power with one-third reservation for women
subsidy to farmers
a direct benefit scheme for women in panchayat elections. The new
where the state would deposit Rs panches are educated, many are young
Rs 5,468 crore depos-
1,500 as seed money in each recipient’s ited in beneficiary accounts in and the women constitute 58.293 per
bank account, today it’s a significant welfare schemes for women cent of them, making Rajasthan the
digital empowerment and governance and children second highest in the country in terms
programme. As Raje says, “It’s a game- of rural representation of women.
changer for the betterment of people.” Online digital register The digitisation of rural Rajasthan
The numbers speak for them- maintained for all teachers, in- has been an extension of the gradual
selves. Bhamashah’s beneficiaries cluding their attendance record build-up of 55,000 eMitra kiosks—
include 61.5 million people out of a mostly run by formerly unemployed
Benefits of half-a-dozen
total population of 77 million in 2018 youths—for 550 services. Today,
scholarship schemes for
covering 16.7 million families. Oi- eMitra handles a million transactions
school/ college students are
cials cannot fudge the figures because electronically transferred every day, from filling online forms
the system has recorded the identity of and fees for driving licences to getting
every recipient and family with pho- a reserved category certificate. This
has meant considerable saving of time
PURUSHOTTAM DIWAKAR and money for the people and also hit
TECH-SAVVY grassroots corruption.
Vasundhara Raje at the launch of This success encouraged the
the Bhamashah data centre implementation of the state’s health
insurance scheme in December 2015.
In three years, it has provided free
hospitalisation to 2.7 million patients,
paying bills worth Rs 1,952 crore.
The state has also shed its image
of stereotyped bureaucratic hurdles
in implementing Ease of Business and
now stands third in India in the Re-
forms Evidence scorecard with 99.5
per cent compliance with an overall
ninth position in India. ■
T TH
ATES TELANGANA Most improved large state in Governance
STATE OF
THE STATES
E-INTERACTION
A MeeSeva centre in
Hyderabad
UNIT BY UNIT
In 2016, 10 districts
were reorganised into
31 to streamline the task of
administration
A comprehensive
land survey was done
to cleanse and update land
registry with names of
current lawful owners
F
or a state just 53 months housing oices of all departments, and e-governance special commis-
old, Telangana has had the and ofering all services, including sioner G.T. Venkateshwar Rao. The
opportunity to learn from e-services, under one roof. state tops with 89,883 transactions
others and build on it. It On August 29, 2014, the state con- for 1,000 persons; followed by Andhra
had a head start in provid- ducted a Samagra Kutumba Survey in Pradesh (82,868) and Kerala (59,582).
ing internet-based services to citizens, which 400,000 government employees The backbone of this success is the
having been part of erstwhile Andhra were mobilised to get information on Digital Telangana programme. To en-
Pradesh which pioneered e-governance 84 parameters from every household. sure digital facilities for all, the Telan-
since the Chandrababu Naidu days. This gave the state a reliable database, gana Fiber Grid (T- Fiber) is building
It has also capitalised on the growth unprecedented in its reach and depth a scalable, high-quality, resilient and
impulse of Hyderabad, the largest for policy formulation and implement- secure state-of-the-art digital network
metropolitan area in the country and ing target-specific programmes. infrastructure connecting 8.4 million
capital of united Andhra Pradesh. Telangana has also set up citizen households. T-Fiber will lay fibreoptic
Telangana also has a very deter- services centres called MeeSeva. A sin- cables along the water pipe routes of
mined chief minister in K. Chan- gle entry and exit portal, it provides the Mission Bhagiratha, a project for safe
drashekar Rao. To streamline gover- drinking water to every household.
nance, the CM reorganised the state’s To service the needs of rural and
10 districts into 31 in 2016, a promise non-smartphone users but also cater-
he had made in his separate statehood
campaign. Post-reorganisation, the
At 89,883 ing to the general urban population,
Telangana has introduced T-Wallet, the
number of mandals went up to 584,
but their number per district dropped
e-transactions per 1,000 first digital wallet owned and operated
by a state government. It is also the
from 46 to 19. The state is now in the persons, Telangana leads first digital wallet to use UID biometric
process of building integrated ad- authentication even if a citizen does not
ministrative buildings in all districts, among all states have a mobile number.
GIVING THEM
THEIR DUE
For a young state, Chhattisgarh has made impresssive strides
in rural development and in moving up the swachh index
By Rahul Noronha
C
hhattisgarh is a centres. None of the million-plus cities the cleanest city in the sub-200,000
relatively new state in the state figure in the top ranks in population category. The Ambikapur
but it has been at the the Centre’s Swachh Survey 2018 but a model was then adopted as a template
forefront of launching whopping seven towns with a popula- across the state. Ambikapur also won
initiatives that have tion of less than 100,000—including the award for the best city in innova-
received praise from Jashpur, Saraipali and Birgaon—fig- tion and best practices by the Union
across the country. Inclusive develop- ured in the top ten. The number goes urban development ministry in 2018.
ment has been a trait associated with up to 25 in the top 100 list. The model entails collection and
Chhattisgarh right from its inception. How was this achieved? Chhattis- segregation of waste at source by
The revenue accrued from mineral garh, with its hilly and forested trained women from self-help groups
wealth mining, used judiciously, has terrain, never saw open defecation (SHGs). The women collect about 45
had a big hand in this. as an issue till the time it became a MT of waste every day. Earlier, the
The District Mineral Foundation national programme. But once it did municipal body was spending Rs 1.25
(DMF) was created specifically to give crore in managing waste. Now it earns
back to areas where mineral wealth about Rs 7 lakh as user charges and
is exploited, helping the state achieve
numerous social sector targets. Simply
Waste management sells the segregated waste for about
Rs 1-3 lakh per month. The waste
put, the DMF is a not-for-profit body
with contribution from the district’s
initiatives give work management initiatives provide em-
ployment to more than 9,000 women
miners. In Dantewada, home to the
famous Bailadila iron ore mines, the
to over 9,000 women and cover 4.5 million households
collecting 1,400 tonnes of waste every
DMF has created assets not seen in
even so-called prosperous districts.
and cover 4.5 million day. “About 87 per cent of the waste
generated in the state is being used,”
The fully stafed district hospital is
one such initiative, so is the education
households adds Das. For the bigger municipal
bodies, Chhattisgarh plans to use
city developed at Jawanga, which has waste to generate electricity. A refuse
earned the district administration na- in 2016, the results starting pouring derived fuel (RDF) plant has been
tional awards. The district is using the in. “We ensured that systems were proposed at Raipur while the one at
DMF to even create livelihoods, from process and not personality driven, Bilaspur is already up.
rearing of livestock to call centres. that programmes were not dependent There are challenges that remain.
Promoting cleanliness has also on one person taking care of things. Chhattisgarh, with an urban popula-
been a state priority and has achieved This ensured results uniformly across tion of 23 per cent, needs to plan its
interesting results, especially in the urban bodies,” says Niranjan Das, future since migration to urban areas
construction of toilets in urban areas, secretary, urban administration. is a continuous process. “We have
waste management and toilets for By 2017, the results began show- a vision document that takes into
girls in schools. The turnaround ing. Ambikapur, a town with a popu- account these challenges,” says Das.
is most visible in its smaller urban lation of about 150,000, was adjudged “All infrastructure, including housing
SPREADING WARMTH
CM Raman Singh
poses with tribals after
distributing blankets
WELFARE
IS THE WAY
FORWARD
The state touches the lives of
MANISH KUMAR
thousands with its mass marriage
and scholarship programmes
By Ashish Misra
A FRESH START A mass marriage
ceremony in Muzaffarnagar
O
n November 1, the riot- oice in March 2017 bodies, such as the nagar
afected Muzafarnagar was order oicials to Uttar Pradesh panchayat, nagar palika
district witnessed a grand
mass marriage pro-
draft a new marriage
scheme for poor girls.
had opened the and zila panchayat, as
well as by NGOs autho-
gramme organised by the
Uttar Pradesh government, with some
Six months on, the
cabinet cleared a bylaw
maximum number rised by district magis-
trates. “A mass marriage
1,150 women from poor families tying
the knot. Archana, 23, who married
for the ‘Mukhyamantri
Samuhik Vivah Yojana’.
of accounts under ceremony should have
at least 10 couples,” says
Anil Kumar, a rickshaw driver from “Child marriage still Pradhan Mantri Jagdish Prasad, director,
the district, received a cheque of prevails in many rural social welfare depart-
Rs 20,000 and an additional Rs areas. Often, poor fami- Jan Dhan Yojana till ment. “So far, 21,000
10,000 worth of household items from
the government. “My father is an agri-
lies marry of girls be-
fore they have attained August 2018 couples have benefitted.
The state government’s
cultural worker. Our financial condi- the age of 18,” says aim is to have 70,000
tion would not have allowed us to hold social welfare minister beneficiaries under this
a wedding function,” says Archana. Ramapati Shastri. “The financial as- scheme by the end of the financial year.”
“But under this scheme, all my three sistance ofered will encourage people Sixteen-year-old Ankush Kumar’s
sisters can be married of comfortably.” to refrain from illegal weddings.” wish to pursue higher education got a
One of the first things Chief Minis- Mass marriage programmes are shot in the arm on October 2 when he
ter Yogi Adityanath did after assuming organised through urban and rural received Rs 50,000 under the scholar-
ship and fee reimbursement scheme.
The Class 11 student’s father is a clerk
in a pharma company with an annual
SOMETHING FOR EVERYONE income of less than Rs 2 lakh. More
than 2.2 million students like Ankush
Old age pension Scholarship and CM’s mass benefitted from the scholarship in
scheme fee reimbursement marriage scheme 2017-18. The scheme has an annual
People in the 60-69 age scheme The government spends budget of Rs 2,600 crore.
group and living below Students in classes 11 Rs 35,000 each on the P.K. Tripathi, deputy director in
the poverty line get Rs and 12 whose family marriage of poor girls in the social welfare department, says:
300 a month; those 80 income is less than mass marriage events “The scholarship and fee reimburse-
years and above get Rs 2 lakh a year get organised by the social
ment is sent directly to the students’
Rs 500 every month Rs 50,000 per year welfare department
bank accounts, removing all hurdles
in availing of the scheme.” ■
RAJWANT RAWAT
I
n the past four years under
the Manohar Lal Khattar-led
BJP government, Haryana
has created an ecosystem to
nurture entrepreneurship and
business development. The period has
witnessed the state’s rise from relative
insignificance to the top ranking in
‘Ease of Doing Business’, alongside
Telangana and Andhra Pradesh.
In July, the Department of Indus-
trial Policy and Promotion assess-
ment under its business reform action
plan accorded Haryana a 98.1 per INCUBATION CENTRE Hartron offers plug-and-play facilities to new ventures
cent score for putting in place policies
and processes that make it among
the best states to launch and sustain NASSCOM (National Association of
a business. Consider this: with 1,923
new start-ups registered in the state
START-UP Software and Service Companies) and
IAMAI (Internet and Mobile Associa-
in 2016, Haryana has kept the pace
high and presently has 2.3 startups
SUCCESS STORIES tion of India). The facility has some 37
start-ups under incubation.
per 100,000 people. Under the Hary- Wonk App An Artificial The HMDC also has India’s sec-
ana Entrepreneur & Startup Policy Intelligence-powered, on- ond Centre of Excellence in the Inter-
demand tutor booking and
2017, several stakeholders have been net of Things (CoE-IoT); an academy
management application
invited on board to facilitate start- for training and research on techno-
QkFeedback An online,
ups with an emphasis on women logical solutions at the grassroots.
AI-driven government-public
entrepreneurs, through local and interface
Ankur Gupta, who heads the state’s
international linkages. electronics and information technol-
Drona Maps Drone-
Taking an early advantage of its based 3D mapping of agri-
ogy department, says that Haryana’s
proximity to the national capital, cultural fields providing crop model of linking entrepreneurs with
Haryana has established the Haryana prescription maps academia and facilitating locally
State Electronics Corporation Limited Notify Visitors Selected relevant start-ups has been presented
(Hartron) Electronic City in Guru- by Oracle to enable cloud to a number of other states. Hary-
gram as a ‘flatted factory complex’. innovation in India, the AI ana’s eforts to handhold start-ups
Here, entrepreneurs have been ofered and machine learning (ML)- have been hailed by the UN Oice of
plug-and-play facilities to establish powered platform automates Information and Communications
new ventures. The 30,000 square notifications on the web and Technology. The state government is
feet Hartron Multiskill Development mobile applications based on in the process of setting up a United
Centre (HMDC) built on 3.4 acres of visitor behaviour Nations Technology Innovation Lab
land houses an innovation and start- HRBOT An AI-based at the HMDC campus. The project is
up hub. Inaugurated in April this screening platform for entry- aimed at raising a $5 million fund for
level job seekers. Awarded by
year, it was set up in association with start-ups by women. ■
Facebook in its 2018 Global
Developer Challenge
READY, GET
SET, START-UP
A slew of new schemes aims to make the
state’s entrepreneurial culture more inclusive
By Aravind Gowda
NOTHING TO WASTE
Public participation and
innovative schemes have been
key in Kerala’s success on the
waste management front
By Jeemon Jacob
T
he ‘Kerala model’ of
development has been a
subject of discussion even
globally, but the state has
struggled in one area—ef-
fective waste management systems.
Being a high density population state
(860 people per sq. km), managing bio
and non-biodegradable waste is a huge
challenge for local self-government REMODELLED
A ‘Clean Kerala’ plastic
(LSG) bodies. The state floated the shredding unit in
Clean Kerala Company Ltd to facilitate Thiruvananthapuram
scientific waste management practices
in collaboration with Kudumbashree,
the poverty eradication mission.
Central Kerala’s Alappuzha Mun-
KERALA’S ROAD The Alappuzha model’s success led
icipal Council set the template with
the Nirmala Bhavanam Nirmala
TO BEING to other LSG bodies using its methods
to manage their waste. Kerala also
Nagaram (Clean Homes Clean City)
mission in 2012, adopting decentral-
CLEAN AND GREEN set up a Haritha Karma Sena, part
of the Haritha Kerala (Green Kerala)
ised waste management with people’s The Haritha Keralam Mission for waste segregation and col-
participation in its 52 wards. It was Mission was linked to Clean lection in all local bodies.
so successful that the UN Environ- Kerala as a priority area to After the 2018 floods, rebuilding
ment Programme recognised it as the protect water resources Kerala has its own huge challenges.
‘best global model’ for sustainable Innovation has been key here. “Our at-
State set up Clean Kerala
solid waste management. Now 80 per tempt now is to create a global model
Company Ltd to handle
cent households have set up subsi- plastic waste from Kerala through innovation,
dised biogas plants and segregate the public participation and responsible
waste at source. Apart from this, pipe Fines and jail term for government action to make the state
compost units, aerobic composting littering in public places more clean and green,” says Chief
units in public places and monitor- Minister Pinarayi Vijayan.
ing against public littering through Haritha Karma Sena of Managing plastic waste will be
CCTVs have helped. State finance volunteers and workers set crucial for the plan to succeed. The
minister Dr Thomas Isaac, who rep- up for waste collection and Left Front government has banned
resents Alappuzha constituency, leads segregation sale of plastic below 50 microns, and
the project from the front. “Designing a state order to use shredded plastics
Awareness campaigns
locally sustainable models, people’s initiated for decentralised,
for road construction has been a big
participation, manage the waste at the efective waste management bonus. Now 56 plastic shredding units
source level, these were crucial for the are operating in the state and 125
mission’s success,” says Dr Isaac. units are to start production soon. ■
HOTSPOT
The Borra caves in Araku valley in
Visakhapatnam
GOING PLACES
India for domestic tourists and among
the top 12 for international tourists.
For this, the state is facilitating
investments to the tune of Rs 10,000
A focused tourism policy since 2015 has helped the state crore. Help is coming from the AP
cash in on its scenic landscapes and pull in visitors Tourism, Culture and Heritage Board,
chaired by the chief minister, to plan
By Amarnath K. Menon and implement initiatives, and the AP
Tourism, Culture and Creativity Com-
mission, set up to ensure focused de-
T
he return of the Formula velopment. Room inventory has also
1 H20 powerboat world increased to over 10,000 this year.
championship to India
after 14 years, and to THE BIG BOOST Consequently, domestic tourist
footfall increased from 93.3 million
the greenfield capital The new tourism in 2014 to 165.7 million in 2017-18,
Amaravati in Andhra Pradesh, from policy (2015-2020), with an average annual growth of 19
November 16 to 18, is a watershed in with an initial investment of percentage points. The state’s ranking
tourism development and in estab- Rs 10,000 crore, hopes to improved from fifth in 2014 to third
lishing the state on the global sporting make Andhra Pradesh the in 2017-18, with the percentage point
most preferred state for
map through an event beamed live to share rising from 7.2 to 9.5. The rank-
domestic tourists
over 50 countries. “We are evolving ing in foreign tourist footfall improved
as ‘Sunrise Andhra Pradesh’, and it Domestic tourists from 22 to 18 in the same period.
is a long journey in which tourism is increased from 93.3 million in “Efective promotional campaigns
helping us meet some of the challenges 2014 to 165.7 million in 2017- and marquee projects, such as the 240
in building our economy,” says Chief 18—an average annual growth acre tourist zone and the Naval Heri-
Minister N. Chandrababu Naidu. of 19 percentage points tage Museum, both in Visakhapatnam,
Indeed, Andhra Pradesh is mak- the Adventure Sports Academy at Gan-
ing tourism one of its major growth
drivers. To its advantage, the state is
TOP TOURIST SPOTS dikota, the recreational facilities on
Bhavani island, a formula racing circuit
endowed with enchanting landscapes, Tirumala, Horsley Hills, at Tanakallu in Anantapur, besides 12
a long coastline, a Buddhism circuit Pulicat Lake, Rushikonda village tourism projects are providing
Beach and Araku Valley
and vantage locations for adventure the impetus,” says state tourism secre-
sports. The village tourism concept tary Mukesh Kumar Meena. ■
I
n the current political environment,
where vitriol has become an integral
part of discourse between rival
politicians, Prime Minister Narendra
Modi’s congratulatory message last
month to Puducherry’s Congress chief
minister V. Narayanasamy was a welcome
A PUNCH
is seen entering a clogged drain barefoot with a
shovel in hand to clear the blockage, went viral.
The video was part of Modi’s ‘Swachhata
hi seva’ movement launched ahead of Gandhi
Jayanti. Narayanasamy’s hands-on approach on
Puducherry outshines the bigger, swachhata has left a stamp across Puducherry.
richer states with its successes on the “The central government chose 52 schools across
health, swachhta and farming fronts the country with the best cleanliness record. Sev-
en of them are from Puducherry,” Narayanasamy
By Kaushik Deka told INDIA TODAY. “One school from Puducherry
topped the list, scoring 100 per cent.”
GREEN WAVE
A paddy field in Ambagarathur
village in Karaikal district
JAISON G
state in Cleanliness
IN GOOD HEALTH
Puduch- per cent of (Rs 2,778 per government-
erry’s infant children im- person) is 98 run education
mortal- munised. The per cent and research
ity rate is national figure more than institute. These
16 per 1,000 for institutional major states institutes ofer
live births birth is 78 per 1,000 seats
while India’s cent and 62 Puduch- in undergradu-
average is 41 per cent for erry has one ate medicine
immunisation government courses and
Almost 100 medical col- 720 seats in
per cent of Puducher- lege, seven undergradu-
births are in ry’s per cap- private medical ate nursing
health insti- ita health colleges and courses
tutions; 91.3 spending one central
C
the power department’s main oice ritics attribute Puduch-
recently, Bedi ordered an immedi- erry’s successes on the
ate clean-up with the help of the of- health front to its tiny
fice staf and even directed them to population—1.24 million
ensure that the premises remained people with a population density of
neat and tidy. 2,598 persons per sq. km. In
Puducherry has already been contrast, Delhi accommodates 16.8
declared open defecation-free million people with 11,297 persons
(ODF). Till date, 27,965 household living in every sq. km. While
toilets have been built in the rural population size has been to
parts; in the urban areas, 935 Puducherry’s advantage, its success
household toilets and 57 commu- is also the result of government
nity toilets have been constructed. policies and eicient management
The focus is now on maintaining of resources. The state has been
the ODF status. With door-to-door spending higher per capita on
waste collection and a scientific health than several richer and
processing and disposal of waste, bigger states, regularly filling up
Puducherry aims to successfully vacancies and setting up adequate
achieve ‘ODF+’ and ‘ODF++’ status number of medical colleges.
under the Swachh Bharat Mission. Puducherry spends 1.85 per
In the healthcare segment, cent of its Gross Domestic Product
Puducherry has surpassed India’s (GDP) on health, compared with
performance on most indicators. Its 0.86 per cent by Delhi and the
infant mortality rate is 16 per 1,000 average 0.74 per cent by other major
live births, while India’s average is states, according to the National
41. Almost 100 per cent of births Health Profile of India, 2017. At Rs
T TH
ATES PUDUCHERRY Best performing small state Overall, in Agriculture and Health Most improved small
STATE OF
THE STATES
T
he spending is also
supported by a robust
health infrastructure in
Puducherry. It has one
government medical college, seven
private medical colleges and the
central government-run Jawaharlal
Institute of Postgraduate Medical
Education and Research (JIPMER).
These institutes ofer 1,000 seats in
undergraduate medicine courses and
720 seats in undergraduate nursing
courses. In fact, there is surplus
manpower in healthcare. Instead of
24 medical oicers required as per the
Indian Public Health Standards
issued under the National Rural
Health Mission, the state has 48
doctors. There are 109 female health
workers, more than double the LEADING THE CHARGE
required 54. CM V. Narayanasamy cleans
What also makes a diference a clogged drain in Nellithope
is that the Puducherry government on October 2, 2018
recruits more permanent staf than
contractual workers. For instance,
over 70 per cent of the auxiliary nurse
midwives (ANMs) were given regular on. “Oicials of the department should bare-bodied, working with farmers
appointments while over 96 per cent not sit and look at files alone. They in his constituency Thirunallar, his
of staf nurses and pharmacists are have to go into the fields and encour- ministry has been extending support
regular employees, says the state age farmers. There is a wide gap and to private organic farming initiatives.
health department. it has to be filled. The Puducherry gov- Last year, six young men, mostly engi-
In the agricultural sector, the gov- ernment is ready to extend all support neering graduates, persuaded farmers
ernment has been focusing on making to the initiative,” the chief minister in Seliamedu village to shift to organic
the state a hub of organic farming. recently told them in public. farming with the assurance to procure
Narayanasamy expects oicials of the While agriculture minister R. the paddy produced.
agriculture department to be hands- Kamalakannan was recently seen Nineteen farmers came together to
+1 1 2 Puducherry 994.2
+3 (highest jump) 2 5 Goa 973.1
+1 3 4 Delhi 944.2
-3 (biggest drop) 4 1 Sikkim 834.9
-2 5 3 Mizoram 770.9
Same 6 6 Arunachal Pradesh 735.7
+1 7 8 Nagaland 732.3
Same 8 8 Tripura 717.3
-2 9 7 Manipur 662.7
Same 10 10 Meghalaya 642
ON THE O
n March 21, just two weeks after
taking oath, Tripura chief
minister Biplab Kumar Deb was
in New Delhi where he had
meetings with over a dozen
TO HOPE
The sense of urgency and purpose was evident
as Tripura’s development has remained a para-
dox—the state has shown decent performances in
social development indicators but has lagged in
infrastructure development.
Tripura has done wonderfully on On multiple social and health indicators, the
social indices. The challenge now is northeastern state competes with Goa, Kerala,
infrastructure and the jobs crisis Karnataka and Gujarat—states with high per
capita income. It has a literacy rate of 87.8 percent
By Kaushik Deka and its sex ratio, at 960 females per 1,000 males,
is above the national average of 942. But, at 19.7
per cent, Tripura also has the highest percent-
age of unemployment in India—four times the
national average of 4.9 per cent.
With an installed
power capacity of 727.24
MW, Tripura is a power
surplus state and exports
power to Myanmar and
Bangladesh
BUILDING BRIDGES
The newly constructed
Signature Bridge
K ASIF/MAIL TODAY
A
as a city-state, Delhi is ties for services businesses. Delhi has
transforming itself from
being a traders’ hub to A MATTER nearly 30 per cent of its workforce
qualified for occupations such as en-
an entrepreneurial
powerhouse. India created eight
OF POLICY gineering, medicine, law and consul-
tancy. According to the Department
unicorns between 2012 and June The Delhi government of Industrial Policy and Promotion,
2018, and Delhi led with five—Snap- launched an incubation the FDI inflows in Delhi, including
deal, OYO, One 97 communications, policy and distributed parts of Uttar Pradesh and Haryana,
Zomato and Shopclues. What has seed money of Rs 1.5 stood at $79.76 billion between April
crore each to six
added to the growing entrepreneurial 2000 and June 2018.
higher education
energy of Delhi is the easy mobility Nearly 23 per cent of the start-
institutions in 2016
aided by an expanding metro and ups in the country are concentrated
road network. It tied up with 41 private in Delhi-NCR. In 2016, the Delhi
Delhi is recognised as the best hospitals in Delhi to facili- government launched an incubation
performing state among small states tate 30 surgeries free policy and distributed seed money of
in infrastructure and entrepreneur- of cost for patients Rs 1.5 crore each to six higher educa-
ship and the most improved state in referred by govern- tion institutions. “The Delhi govern-
health. Nearly 100 per cent of Delhi ment hospitals in the ment will pitch in every time there is
households have electricity and a capital, as part of its ‘qual- a good idea and a good plan,” Deputy
significantly higher number of people ity health for all’ initiative Chief Minister Manish Sisodia said at
use mobile phones. It also has a rela- the launch of the scheme. ■
MANDAR DEODHAR
SUN ’N SAND
Candolim beach
in north Goa
HIGH TIDE
14 onshore casinos contributed Rs
150 crore to the state exchequer. That
gambling brought in the tourists as
well as domestic players was evident
at Casino Royale, a liner docked in the
Tourism remains a mainstay, but Goa has also taken Mandovi river in Panaji. Both decks
great strides in governance and basic infrastructure of the casino ship were chock a block
with gambling enthusiasts.
By Kiran D. Tare Foreign investors have invested
$970 million in the state since April
2000. Merchandise exports from the
state reached $2.1 billion in 2017-
18. The state government has made
B
efore he fell ill in Feb- ing a social evil. a provision of Rs 981 crore to turn
ruary this year, Goa Parrikar’s firm stand paid of. The capital Panaji into a ‘smart city’ with
chief minister Mano- state registered an annual economic focus on entertainment, hospitality
har Parrikar had en- growth rate of 8.8 per cent last year. and public transport.
sured the economy and And it grew with the help of strong per- Goa’s basic infrastructure too,
tourism sectors were formances in three sectors—tourism, especially the roads, is in good shape.
in order. Against tremendous pressure mining and pharmaceuticals. With a A 100 per cent electrified state with an
by activists, he had tried to keep the growth of 15.6 per cent, Goa’s Gross installed power generation capacity of
iron ore mines operational before the State Domestic Product (GSDP) was 549.41 mega watt, it has ample power.
Supreme Court banned mining. He Rs 51,692 crore in 2016-17. It increased Transmission lines, though, are weak
steered the state’s entertainment sector to Rs 70,257 crore in 2017-18. and the cause for power cuts in various
clear by promoting casinos in spite of While mining added revenues of parts. This has afected industrial
staunch opposition over gambling be- Rs 1,000 crore, the five ofshore and production too. Power minister Nilesh
INTO A
GREEN
HEAVEN
Efficient allocation of resources
has inculcated a green and
industrious spirit in the Mizos
By Kaushik Deka
JOHNY NGURTHANSANGA SHADES OF PRISTINENESS Aerial view
of state capital Aizawl
B
eing one of India’s most (EDS) is being implemented through Rabhi (rabhi means stepping stone in
scenic and naturally af- the Mizoram Entrepreneurship Mizo language), which aims to provide
fluent states, it’s hardly a Development Monitoring Committee micro funding to potential and promis-
surprise that this north- (MEDMOC) to equip applicants with ing start-up ventures. The initiative
eastern hill state scores requisite skills for starting their own goes beyond funding as a mechanism
highly on environmental parameters. venture and providing them with insti- for monitoring the progress of the
To protect, propagate and develop tutional and knowledge-based support ventures has been put in place.
wildlife and its environment, the state to run their businesses successfully. Three Micro StartUp Capital
government has notified 10 protected According to MEDMOC oicials, Competitions have been held so far.
areas in the state—covering 8 per cent the programme is meant to groom the In another huge step towards build-
of the total geographical area. A key budding entrepreneurs of Mizoram ing an entrepreneurship ecosystem in
factor in protecting the environment and will be administered by IIM the state, Mizoram Kailawn 2018, the
was the implementation of the New Calcutta. One of the key components first-ever business plan competition
Land Use Programme (NLUP) in of the scheme is the Micro Startup and entrepreneur summit, was organ-
2011. It discouraged jhum cultivation, Capital Competition or Mizoram ised this year. The summit received
which adversely afects soil health. 330 entries, with the business plans
Mizoram also adopted the New spanning sectors such as agriculture,
Development Policy (NEDP) in 2016, construction, skill building, handi-
which changed the way resources were
allocated for development in the state.
MEASURES OF crafts, tourism and recycling.
The other initiatives under EDS
“With the introduction of NLUP and PROGRESS include administrative reforms in the
NEDP,” Mizoram chief minister Lal Ease of Doing Business, strengthen-
Thanhawla said, “Mizoram is one of Mizoram’s per capita ing infrastructure for entrepreneurs
the highest growing economies of the income grew from and farmers, preparing an entre-
Rs 57,654 in 2011 to
country.” The state clocked growth preneurship manual, setting up an
Rs 91,985 in 2016, an
rates of over 8 per cent between increase of 60 per cent
entrepreneurship knowledge centre
2013 and 2016. The recent Magnetic for providing handholding support
Mizoram Investors Summit, the chief Percentage of schools services and data bank, conducting a
minister added, promised investments with separate toilets for need-based entrepreneurship and skill
of Rs 600 crore in solar energy and Rs girls in the state increased development programme, conducting
1,500 crore in the hospitality sector. from 62 per cent in 2010 exposure trips for potential entrepre-
A key area of focus in the NEDP is to 90 per cent in 2015 neurs, a tie-up with the Mizoram
entrepreneurship development. Its En- University Incubation Centre and the
trepreneurship Development Scheme IIM Calcutta Innovation Park. ■
MISSION
STRIKING DEEP ROOTS MODE
THE MANY SCHEMES
In a state where farming is the mainstay, a variety of projects
LAUNCHED TO
promise to make the hill state an agricultural powerhouse REVITALISE THE
AGRI SECTOR
By Kaushik Deka
Mission Lakadong to
register a five-fold increase
I
n an interview just after taking Likewise, the Jackfruit Mission aims in the production of
charge of the state in March, to stop the loss of around Rs 400 crore Lakadong turmeric
Chief Minister Conrad K. a year incurred due to wasted fruit. A
Mushroom Mission
Sangma outlined his top Rs 80 crore investment over five years is
to scale up production of
priority—sector-specific planned, and will involve 82,000 farm-
the bulb from 27 MT now to
policies, especially for agriculture. ers, create 50 small enterprises and 200 5,000 MT in five years
More than 70 per cent of the state’s home-scale nano enterprises.
population is still dependent on agricul- The Sangma government has also Rs 378 cr for second
ture for livelihood. “Development of ag- made functional the Integrated Technol- phase of flagship aqua-
riculture will provide job opportunities, ogy Enabled Agriculture Management culture mission aimed at
food security for the state, and enhance System (iTeams), a phone helpline to cutting fish imports
the finances of farmers,” says Sangma. connect farmers to markets. More than
In April, the government launched 15,000 farmers have already signed up. iTeams helpline con-
Mission Lakadong to register a five-fold About 46,951 hectares of farmland nects farmers to markets
increase in the production of the local has been brought under organic farming.
Jackfruit Mission
Lakadong turmeric—said to have the The target is to spread organic produc-
plans to invest Rs 80 cr
highest curcuminoid content and major tion to 2 lakh hectares by 2020. More over five years, involve
health benefits—to at least 50,000 met- than 35,000 farmers are now under the 82,000 farmers
ric tonne per year in the next five years. purview of this mission.
The government proposes an investment Union agriculture minister Radha Rs 215 cr project for
of Rs 75 crore for its promotion. Mohan Singh announced a Rs 215 crore Meghalaya Milk Mission
Meanwhile, the draft policy for project through the National Coopera-
Mushroom Mission has a goal to produce tive Development Corporation for the Central Agriculture
5,000 metric tonnes in five years. The Meghalaya Milk Mission. It will provide University for Meghalaya
state agriculture department will invest training and funds to dairy farms, chill-
Rs 50 crore in 136 villages for this. ing centres and purchase of cattle. ■
VISIONS OF BOUNTY
Terrace fields in Meghalaya
SIKKIM Best performing small state in Education and Cleanliness Most improved small state in Governance
STATE OF
THE STATES
A
state dependent on
BEAUTIFUL
says A.B. Karki,
district collector of West Sikkim.
Truly, Sikkim is as beautiful and
pristine as a picture postcard. And it
stays that way because it has made it
Sikkim is not just a squeaky clean tourist mandatory for its elected representa-
haven, it also has near 100 per cent tives to set a good example—anyone
contesting polls has to have a toilet in
literacy and a high gender parity index their home. Despite such warnings,
if people opt for open defecation, the
By Romita Datta
government makes them ineligible for
social welfare schemes, besides emb-
arrassing them on social media. There’s
also a spot fine of Rs 5,000.
The same seriousness goes into the
campaign to ban plastic. The governm-
ent has involved children and even
SUBIR HALDER
CLEAN ’N CLEAR
Aerial view of Gangtok
grandparents in the ‘waste to wealth’ too have been installed in their school
drive, which converts used plastic toilets for hygienic disposal of pads.
bottles and packets into beautiful
objects of art.
“Corporate funding and Sulabh
International have formed a corpus CLEAN
“You won’t find a single plastic
bottle or carrybag littering Sikkim. We
kitty of Rs 80 lakh to instal the vending
machines. The government of India,
CONTEST
engage children and their grandmoms as a token of appreciation, has also Candidate with no
to go plastic hunting. The used plastic sanctioned Rs 1.5 crore,” says additional toilets at home can-
is transformed into an artistic creation, chief secretary of HRD, G.P. Upadhyay. not contest elections
such as a basket, a wall hanging, flower This apart, girls are being given les-
pots, etc,” Karki says. The district ad- sons in self-defence and martial One becomes
ministration, of late, has been encour- arts. The best part about Sikkim is ineligible for state
benefits if caught
aging people to plant basil in such that it has zero tolerance for atroci-
defecating in the open
plastic pots and gift it to friends. ties against women. “We haven’t had
There’s some thought behind this a single case of eve-teasing or violence Use of plastic is
gift idea too. Basil is considered holy against women this year,” says Upad- discouraged; used
here, and also has medicinal properties. hyay. There are no major law and order plastic bottles and
The campaign has generated a lot of violations and politically, too, peace packets are turned into
interest among people and homes are reigns in themost part, perhaps why objects of art, which
now nurseries with plastic pots bursting the hill state is the preferred tourism are marketed and sold
with orchids and basil. destination in the Northeast. with the help of self-
In education, Sikkim boasts of be- Strengthening of e-governance in help groups
ing fully literate. In fact, on August 15 areas such as land records, electoral
Plastic hunting
last, it declared itself as having achieved rolls, online vehicle registration, driving
has been incentivised
near 100 per cent literacy. The state has licence and a medical database have
a high Gross Enrolment Ratio of 37 per helped in smooth and prompt delivery
cent as against a national average of of public services. Moreover, a vigor-
26 per cent. Again, the Gender Parity ous Right to Information Act (RTI)
Index is high—111 girls per 100 boys. programme has made the state far more
The government is receptive to the accountable. EQUAL
needs and problems of girl students.
This year, the education department
Chief Minister Pawan Chamling
rang in changes in the Drug Addiction LEARNING
has announced setting up sanitary Act 2006 last August. He says he wants
Senior andsec-
napkin vending machines in all second- people to take a humane approach to-
ondary schools have
ary and senior secondary schools. All wards drug addicts instead of treating sanitary napkin
726 such schools already have separate them as criminals. “It should be treated vending machines
toilets for girl students. Amisha Gu- like any other illness,” says the CM.
rung and Jema Rai of Modern Senior The 2006 Act had strict provisions, 1,000 differently
Secondary School say that incinerators treating drug addiction as an ofence abled students
and advocating six months in jail and taught along with
heavy penalties for addicts. The Act normal children to help
now focuses on punishing drug ped- their integration into
society. Children with
Sikkim has the dlers and not the victims. The earlier
avatar—treating the addicts as crimi-
disability are provided
with aids, appliances
country’s highest nals—had only aggravated the problem,
as drug users, fearing jail, were loath
and travel allowance
SAFETY
MEASURES
CRIME PATROL The state police, in as-
sociation with the tourism
department, has launched the
Special squads to ensure safety of tourists, all-women tourist police—a special
police stations and 14 police vehicles on the highways—the squad to ensure the safety
of tourists
state has taken credible steps to control the crime rate
Nagaland has set up three
all-women polices sta-
By Kaushik Deka tions at Dimapur, Kohima
and Kiphire in a move to deter
crimes against women
The Nagaland government
has provided 14 highway
patrol vehicles to curb
criminal activities along
the highways in the state
Total number of
recorded crimes in
Nagaland dropped
MAINTAINING
from 1,212 in 2016
VIGIL The police
conducting a routine to 928 in 2017
check in Kohima
KHRIZ SUOHU
hile most states have The state has also recorded the all-women police stations at Dimapur,
● MUTUAL FUNDS
● FIXED DEPOSITS
● HEALTH INSURANCE
SMART MONEY DIRECT PLANS
I
t has been about five cal returns, fund manager
years since mutual fund profiles, ratings, category
houses launched direct performance, risk assess-
funds. Direct plans are ments and much more,” says
cheaper than regular plans Pravin Jadhav, whole-time
which have distributor director, Paytm Money.
commissions embedded in However, if you are
them. Many fintechs have new to investing and want
forayed into the business of to invest in direct plans,
selling mutual funds and are it’s better to seek advice.
providing platforms to in- Some platforms such as Oro
vest in direct mutual funds. Wealth and Invezta also pro-
These platforms typically vide advice for fees to help
get themselves registered as you plan your investments.
advisors with SEBI and sell “Orowealth stresses on cre-
direct plans. Advisors are ating a plan based on market
allowed to charge fees from conditions and individual
investors and sell direct
plans. Distributors, on the
other hand, don’t charge any
A FIRM GRIP risk profiles, constantly
monitors the plan and sug-
gests adequate rebalancing,”
fees but earn commissions
through the regular plans
ON YOUR MF says Vijay Kuppa, co-found-
er, Orowealth.
they sell. Paytm, one of the
biggest mobile wallet com- INVESTMENTS But if you are someone
who needs constant hand-
panies, has also launched holding, can’t read markets
a platform, Paytm Money,
Direct plans with their lower expense and panic in times of market
to enable investments in
ratios are worth a look-see volatility, you should go
direct mutual funds. Others with a distributor who can
include Clearfunds (now investors know upfront what provide you personalised
acquired by Mobikwik), they are paying. “Clearfunds services. Direct plans are no
Paisabazaar.com, Zerodha, does not take any kickbacks DIRECT, DIGITAL doubt cheap and over the
ORO wealth, Wishfin. or hidden brokerage, no MUTUAL FUND years result in savings. But
Many of these platforms are invisible annual commis- INVESTMENT this is only when you invest
currently not charging any sion and no distribution in the right funds as per
Ô Helps you save on
fees, or minimal fees, in or- fees,” says Kunal Bajaj, distributor commission your risk appetite and asset
der to widen their customer head, wealth management, and invest in mutual allocation. It will indeed
base. But that may not be MobiKwik. funds directly be a pity if to save a one per
the case forever. Some provide just a cent commission, you end up
Ô Enables investment in
transactional platform. investing in wrong funds.
multiple funds through a
Ô DIGITAL PLATFORM Direct plans are generally single platform “While these platforms
FOR INVESTMENT for D-I-Y investors who have offer ease of transaction, in-
If you are looking for ease the time and the knowledge Ô Can be used as trans- vestors should refrain from
actions-only platform
of transaction, just log in. to do their own research and investing impulsively. They
where you get to make
You can invest in multi- choose funds they want to should not force-fit their
all the decisions
ple funds through a single invest in. Some platforms investments, but invest with
platform. However, if you also provide data to enable Ô You can also get specific goals and objec-
invest through the website research. “Accessing our free advice for a fee tive. I strongly believe that
of a fund house, you have to tools to research across mu- Ô Free tools help investors should seek advice
register on each separately. tual fund schemes from 30+ you research differ- before investing in direct op-
Besides, the cost of in- AMCs, users get compre- ent schemes and help tions from such platforms,”
vestment is more transpar- hensive information about you reach an informed says Radhika Gupta, CEO,
ent for investors as there are each scheme, including decision Edelweiss AMC. ■
no embedded charges. The past performance, histori- —Renu Yadav
STAY LIQUID,
STAY ON TOP
‘Laddering’ your fixed deposits
is a tested way of getting
money just when you need it
SHUTTERSTOCK
F
ixed deposits may retirees depend heavily on to pay a penalty or earn that investment into five
be one of the most FDs for a low-risk consis- lower interest. If we assume tranches of Rs 2 lakh each
popular investment tent return on their corpus interest falls to 7 per cent on and spread them over five
products for risk- and to have liquidity. But completion of three years, years. He invests the first
averse investors. However, interest rate fluctuations you have to reinvest the Rs 2 lakh for a year, the next
fixed return investments are can impact return on FD corpus at 2 per cent lower for two years, and the final
not entirely risk-free. investments in the long return. An investor may tranche for five years. As-
“Even a fixed return as- term. Here is how. also face a liquidity crunch suming he is getting 7 per
set class has risks like inter- while investing in a long- cent interest, he’ll have
est rate change in the mar- Ô INTEREST RATE RISK term FD. In such a scenario, Rs 2.14 lakh at the end of
ket, default by the issuer, etc. ON FD INVESTMENT FD laddering could come in the first year, which can
Fixed deposits absorb some Suppose you invest a corpus useful to mitigate the inter- then be invested in another
amount of the risk in terms of Rs 10 lakh in an FD for est and liquidity risk. five-year deposit to create
the sixth ladder in the
process. This shields the in-
vestor against interest rate
LADDER YOUR FD FOR FLEXIBILITY fluctuation. If interest rates
Ô Typically, Ô Bulk FDs Ô Divide Ô Invest Ô It ensures increase in the future, it’s a
long-term and low in- your invest- each part liquidity at win-win situation. If they
FDs such as terest rates ible surplus at cer- regular in- drop, the investor can park
for 5 years on renewal in small se- tain fixed tervals and his funds in another instru-
give higher could result ries of equal interval of 6 your inter- ment with higher returns
return in big loss amounts months to 1 est loss is after his deposit matures.
year minimised
“Investors using FD lad-
dering have liquidity every
year, and have the option
of default, and hence offer three years at 9 per cent in- Ô WHAT IS LADDERING to create longer income
lower returns than direct terest per annum for three “Laddering deposits is a way streams. Additionally, they
bond investments. But there years and the prevailing in- of staggering your invest- can protect themselves
are risks such as default risk, terest rate goes up or down ments into multiple FD against premature with-
interest rate risk, liquid- in the investment period or accounts of varying terms drawals,” says Mihir Mehta,
ity risk, credit rating risk, on completion of the FD. to have liquidity at regular founder, Fintuned.
business risk, currency risk, Assuming the interest rate intervals,” explains Adhil The laddering principle
call risk, to name the major goes up by 1 per cent after a Shetty, co-founder and CEO, can be applied to all fixed in-
ones,” says Vijayananda year, you lose the extra re- BankBazaar. come instruments, whether
Prabhu, investment analyst, turn for the remaining two Assuming an inves- bank or company FDs, NSCs
Geojit Financial Services. years. If you break the FD tor wants to invest Rs 10 or KVPs. ■
Senior citizens and prematurely, you may have lakh in FDs. He can break —Amit Sethi
SMART MONEY HEALTH INSURANCE
PREMIUM
CONCERN
How to ensure your claim
is honoured if a medical
emergency occurs closer
to the policy renewal date
M
edical emergencies
tend to catch us un-
awares. If hospitalisa-
tion occurs closer to a
health insurance policy’s renewal
date, and you have neglected to
pay the premium, you risk the dis-
honouring of your claim, resulting
in a heavy financial burden.
Of course, IRDA or the Insur-
ance Regulatory and Development
Authority allows a 30-day grace
period within which insurance
premium paid should be accepted
and the policy benefits reinstated.
However, it is essential to under-
stand three situations that could
arise if a family member is hospi-
talised close to a policy anniversary
to avoid claim rejections.
Ô PRE-RENEWAL CLAIM
When a claim is made within the
policy period before the expiry of
cover, irrespective of whether the
renewal premium has been paid
or not, provided it falls within the
purview of the policy, based on the
clauses specified.
Ô CLAIM BEYOND
RENEWAL DATE
When hospitalisation in one policy
year spills over to the next, the date
of admission is critical, says Yash-
endra Sharma, senior vice-presi-
dent, Alliance Insurance Brokers.
“If a policyholder is hospitalised be-
fore the expiry of a policy year and
the lapse time, the insurer might
still consider the claim in entirety
if the next premium is paid post-
SPEEDING
UP CLAIMS have been a policyholder for
PROCESS several years together,” says
Ô Set up personal Sharma. This is because a
reminders for pre- policy is a contract, which
mium payment expires on a set date or time,
Ô Or, arrange standing Sharma clarifies.
instructions for banks Illustrating by example,
or ECS payments Ashish Mehrotra, CEO, Max
Bupa Health Insurance,
Ô Inform insurance
says, “If your cover expired
company immediately
about the claim on September 30 and you
pay the premium on October
Ô Check required 14, then the claim arising on
documents, submit
hospitalisation,” he says. Ô HOSPITALISATION October 12 won’t be covered.
them at the earliest
If hospitalisation occurs IN GRACE PERIOD But any clagim arising after
within the policy term, then What if one has not paid Ô Check if documents October 14 will be paid if
the claim is honoured even premium on time for renew- can be accepted over premium’s been paid to
if the hospitalisation ex- ing the policy and the medi- e-mail or fax for faster reinstate the policy benefits
submission
tends to the policy renewal cal emergency occurs within within the grace period.”
period. “All one needs to the grace period? “If the Ô Use an app to regis-
do is to intimate the claim hospitalisation occurs even ter claim instantly and Ô LAPSE IMPLICATION
to the insurance company two hours after the policy track claim status “In India,” says Sharma, “the
immediately,” says Anurag has lapsed due to non-pay- Ô Supporting docu- cover starts only after the
Rastogi, member of execu- ment of renewal premium, ments like doctor’s money is paid. So, even if
tive management, HDFC the insurer will not enter- prescription and con- you pay your premium three
ERGO General Insurance. tain the claim even if you sultation letters about days after the cover ends,
the diagnosis and re- the policy lapses and there’s
quirement of continu-
a gap in the policy. In such
SAVE YOUR CLAIM ous treatment during
post-hospitalisation
a situation, the policyholder
SITUATION CLAIM period, along with the loses the continuity ben-
Hospitalisation Claim accepted, subject to original medicine and efit, and the waiting period
before renewal date hospitalisation period and other pathology bills, must clauses for pre-specified and
clauses be submitted select surgeries apply all over
Hospitalisation Claim considered if date of hos- Ô Insurance reposi- again,” says Sharma.
spreads over two pitalisation is pre-renewal date, tories ofer several Rastogi issues another
policy years renewal premium payment done services—including warning. “If the customer
Hospitalisation during Claim rejected if renewal pre- claims—under one contracts any disease during
grace period mium not paid umbrella for multiple the grace period, it’s treated
insurance companies, as a pre-existing disease
Claim during grace Claim rejected due to non-pay-
so get e-policy and
period, but after ment of premium; waiting period when the policy’s renewed.” ■
save it in insurance
policy break applies afresh —Khyati Dharamsi
repository
Illustration by TANMOY CHAKRABORTY
LE
THE MAN WHO DANCE
WOULD BE QUEEN AND DREAM
PG 7 8 PG 8 0
BOOKS
DANCE
AND
DREAM
I
In 2010, Jayalakshmi Eshwar pre-
sented what was billed as India’s first
VAQA AS MANSURI
Bharatanatyam fantasy opera. Called
‘Antariksha Sanchar’, it was inspired
by Hindu mythology of flight and the
Vaimanika Shastra—an early 20th
century Sanskrit text that makes the
claim that the flying palaces and chariots
described in the Mahabharata and Ra-
mayana were advanced flying machines
that have been lost in the mists of time.
This winter, the show returns with
3D animation, electronic music by Sri
Rama Murthy aka Murthovic and new
ideas, including the dream theories of
mathematician S. Ramanujan. For Esh-
war, this is not radical; it’s just following
VAQA AS MANSURI
DEMYSTIFYING
design
design is for everyone,” they Moorthy. Hence, the sched-
say in unison. “Most design ule includes everything
Highlights
events are niche and often from public installations ● Green is the Colour
cater to the community and lectures to workshops by Total Environment
only,” adds Moorthy. and challenges. From the (November 23 to Decem-
With a background at venues to the sponsors, the ber 2), St Mark’s Circle:
Priyanka Suprita Sotheby’s Australia and The focus on design is clear. An installation of con-
Shah Moorthy Victoria and Albert Theatre Branding exercises too will centric green, ribbon-like
Museum, London, Moorthy be in the form of instal- structures will pop out on
has been the Programme lations and interactive a busy junction
With striking green struc- Director at India Design workshops. ● When Buildings Come
tures on St Mark’s Road Forum since 2012. Bhan- For the near future, Alive (November 23 to
and yards of fabric woven dary worked in branding Moorthy and Bhandary December 2), Town Hall:
around the town hall, Ben- and design, getting together want to put their energies Handwoven textiles by
galuru ByDesign is taking with Moorthy to realise into creating a platform Aadyam will be wrapped
over the city from Novem- their common vision of an that brings in international around the pillars of this
ber 23 to December 3. international design plat- participation. “We don’t historic landmark, woven
in the pattern of the act of
The goal? Co-founders form in Bengaluru. want to set ourselves apart
weaving
Suprita Moorthy, 36, and “All the programming for now. In the future, we
Priyanka Shah Bhandary, comes from the basic tenets want it to be a festival that ● Paper Traditions, A Pa-
33, set out to make design we set out for the event early integrates local design tra- joke Workshop (November
more inclusive. “We want on—impacting public, busi- ditions,” says Moorthy. 24, 10.30 am to 4.30 pm),
to demystify the idea that ness and education,” says —Prachi Sibal WeWork Galaxy: Learn the
art of Polish chandeliers
with London-based de-
signer Karolina Merska
● Museum of Everything
(November 23 and 24),
Kafnu, The Residency: A
curated pop-up of sustain-
able fashion, accessories,
home décor and more
LEISURE
M USIC
All that
Punk
W
hen they last
toured India in
2016, British
‘punk-jazz’ band
WorldService
Project was as impressed
with the audience as the au-
dience was with them. “We
met people who dropped
these references,” says
keyboardist, composer and
frontman Dave Morecroft.
“[They said,] ‘Oh the first
track reminded me of ‘Mr.
JAMES DREW TURNER
FRANK UIJLENBROEK
84 Volume XLIII Number 49; For the week Nov 27-December 3, 2018, published on every Friday Total number of pages 100 (including cover pages)
DIGITAL EDITION
OC
SPECIAL ISSUE STATE OF THE STATES
www.indiatoday.in DECEMBER 3, 2018 `60
REGISTERED NO. DL(ND)-11/6068/2018-20; U(C)-88/2018-20; FARIDABAD/05/2017-19 LICENSED TO POST WITHOUT PREPAYMENT
INDIA’S
BEST
STATES
AN EXCLUSIVE ANNUAL
SURVEY OF THE BEST
AND MOST IMPROVED
PERFORMERS, RANKED
ON 12 KEY PARAMETERS
RNI NO. 28587/75
PLEASE CONTINUE
TO YOUR FREE MAGAZINE
ai THE GRAND
RETURN OF
A HERITAGE
HOTEL
HIIGH
HEA NEW FITNESS HOTSPOTS
LIGHT BITES & MORE
Nishka Choraria,
VP marketing and business
development, Club Crest
NOVEMBER 2018
THE GRAND
RETURN OF
A HERITAGE
A MONTHLY CITY MAGAZINE HOTEL
Nishka Choraria,
VP marketing and business
development, Club Crest
inside
4
Cover Story
Healthy
Beginnings
Work out with
celebrities at the newest
fitness hotspot, switch
to salad meals or bite
into delicious guilt-free
desserts—here are some
fun ways to stay fit in
the city.
Editor-in-Chief
Aroon Purie
Group Editorial Director
Raj Chengappa
Group Creative Editor
Nilanjan Das
Group Photo Editor
Bandeep Singh Cover photograph by SUMANTH KUMAR
Deputy Editor
Prachi Bhuchar OUR PICK of the month
Consulting Editors
Mohini Mehrotra
Rewati Rau
Photo Department
Vikram Sharma
Photo Researchers
Prabhakar Tiwari,
Shubhrojit Brahma, Saloni Vaid
Design
Angshuman De, Anuranjan Bhatia and
Rajesh Angira
Production
Harish Aggarwal (Chief of
Production), Naveen Gupta,
Vijay Sharma, Prashant Verma
Layout Execution
Ramesh Kumar Gusain
Pradeep Singh Bhandari
Publishing Director
Manoj Sharma
Associate Publisher (Impact)
Anil Fernandes A Grand Return colonial era, art deco elements
The iconic Taj Connemara dating and architect Geofrey Bawa.
Impact Team back to 1854 has reopened its doors to AT Taj Connemara,
Senior General Manager:
Jitendra Lad (West) the city after renovations. The modern Binny Road, Anna Salai
General Managers: redesign features inluences from the Tel 66000000
Upendra Singh (Bangalore);
Kaushiky Gangulie (East)
Healthy
Beginnings
Work out with celebrities
at the newest fitness
hotspot, switch to
salad meals, or bite
into delicious guilt-free
desserts—here are some
fun ways to stay fit
in the city.
By Prachi Sibal
Step Up
CLUB CREST
experiences. Celebrity trainer and
fitness director, Sandeep Pappula,
27, who has worked with Arun Vijay
and Vishwanathan Anand, focuses
on goal-oriented fitness regimes
hennai’s newest social club is also its hottest fitness with members. “We have four
C
destination. Launched in September this year, Club Crest brings programmes—Build, Burn, Balance
in fitness and wellness under one roof. With majestic archways and Transform—based on your
constructed out of recycled elevator crates, the 15,000 sq ft space requirement,” he says. “There’s also
ofers something to every kind of fitness enthusiast. A 25-foot a dedicated nutrition and physio-
climbing wall, running track, pilates machine, a dedicated spa and therapy room for an all-round fitness
juice bar—everything is housed conveniently in a space called experience as well,” adds Choraria.
Cathedral of Fitness. In addition to that, there is the Whatever
Room which hosts group classes like TRX and Kettle Bell. AT PHOENIX MARKET CITY, VELACHERY
TEL 9854330684
Helmed by Nishka Choraria, 23, vice president, marketing
PRICE ON REQUEST
and business development, the centre also curates group fitness
A
Buddha bowl to bring
some zen into your life or a
quinoa sushi salad to keep
your cravings at bay—salads
by Ritika Agarwal don’t just
promise you a quick, healthy
meal but look like bowls of
sunshine too. With a back-
ground in catering, Agarwal,
42, would experiment with
exotic ingredients and cui-
sines at home. Her brand,
Rawmazing, began with a
request from a friend. “She
asked me to make her salads
five days a week and got
together a set of ten people
who were willing to order. I
started with simple foil con-
tainers in 2016,” she says.
The salad meals were an
instant hit and her subscrip-
tion service soon had many
more takers. She now delivers
them thrice a week without
once repeating a salad in a
month. “They are all low-
carb with no preservatives
or cream and are balanced
with good fats and protein,”
she says. Ingredients such
as green leafy vegetables are
brought in from Ooty and
microgreens from Mumbai.
Ritika Agarwal She pairs leaves such as
of Rawmazing arugula and Romaine lettuce
with grains like quinoa and
Photograph by SUMANTH KUMAR Israeli couscous. While
oriental cuisine is her forte,
Italian, Vietnamese, Chinese
Meal in a Bowl
RAWMAZING
and Korean lavours make
their way in her salads too.
All vegetarian, the salads are
delivered at lunch time only.
TEL 9790775511
PRICE RS 3,300 ONWARDS FOR
A SUBSCRIPTION OF 12 SALADS
COVER STORY
B
cupcake and you’ll taste
lavours of fresh jackfruit and
banana. Moist and mildly
sweetened, Senthil Kumar
Balu, 34, will quickly give away
the secret ingredient and
assure you refrigeration won’t
leave it dry and crumbly. If
you thought a diet and dessert
don’t go together, Wholesome
Rhapsody will make you
Senthil
rethink this. Made using millet,
Kumar
ragi, buckwheat and amaranth
Balu of
Wholesome
lour and sweetened with co-
Rhapsody conut or palm sugar, they also
come in unusual lavours like
sapota, carrot and jackfruit.
Balu, a cancer researcher-
turned-baker, didn’t set out to
make a career in food. A cake
baked on a whim while he was
working as a professor in
Australia got him thinking
about ‘food as therapy’ and all
the people who couldn’t have
dessert because of dietary
restrictions. “I used my re-
search methodology to arrive
at recipes. First it was the ma-
jor ingredients being replaced
for healthier alternatives, then
minor things like lavour came
into place,” he says. Fruit puree
is used for lavour and home-
made cream cheese work well
as a topping. At Wholesome
Photograph by JAISON G Rhapsody you can order cakes,
cupcakes, jar desserts, sweet
and savoury cookies with no
Sweet Surprise
WHOLESOME RHAPSODY
preservatives or artificial
colouring and customised
desserts based on your diet.
“I’ve made cakes for cancer
patients using ingredients like
turmeric and citrus pectin that
are anti-cancer actives,” he says.
TEL 9176728176
PRICE RS 1,650 PER KG ONWARDS
Wellness Stop
ANANTA SPA
ith as many as 24
Right Bite
A SALAD COMPANY
O
nce an IT professional who used to grab a quick unhealthy
bite at his work desk, Santhosh Thomas Elias, 34, quit his job
to start A Salad Company with an old colleague Yoga Priya,
32, targeting the IT sector to help them fulfil their nutritional
needs on the go. A Salad Company is a no-fuss subscription
service that focuses on providing healthy meals, while also ca-
tering to special diets like Keto, Paleo and more.
Meals are prepared with local ingredients, with no refined
lour, sugar or preservatives. One also gets a juice shot with
each portion ordered. “The juices are cold-pressed and made
using age-old grandmothers’ recipes,” says Elias. The menu
includes several traditional Indian recipes with healthier in-
gredients. All meals come with a calorie count. Alternatively,
one can provide their own per-meal calorie count for them to
curate a salad accordingly.
W
hen hitting the gym isn’t an
option, here’s how you can bring
the gym home instead. With over 12
branches in the country, Gympac
Photograph by JAISON G
Expeditions, which partnered with
premium fitness equipment manu-
(R) Mohan facturer Life Fitness in 2015, caters to
Gupta, all fitness needs big and small. “Your
founder and lifestyle may not encourage you to be
managing healthy but we will. We provide equip- range. “The Life Fitness cardio range, including Life Fitness
director,
ment needed for a transformational Treadmills and Life Fitness Cross Trainers, is one of the top
Gympac
workout experience. High standards sellers for professional trainers and athletes because the equip-
Fitness
Systems
of engineering mean you can get the ment is of high quality,” he adds. While looking up the website
Private results in the comfort of your home," may give you an overview of their equipment, the Life Fitness
Limited says Mohan Gupta, managing director, Concept Store is where you can get hands-on experience.
Gympac Fitness Systems Private Lim-
DETAILS GYMPACFITNESS.COM
ited. Both cardio and strength equip-
PRICE ON REQUEST
ment are available in a dedicated home