Coal allocation scam or Coalgate, as referred by the media, is a political scandal concerning the Indian government’s allocation of the nation’s coal deposits to public sector entities (PSEs) and private companies. In a draft report issued in March 2012, the Comptroller and Auditor General of India (CAG) office accused the Government of India of allocating coal blocks in an inefficient manner during the period 2004–2009. Over the Summer of 2012, the opposition BJP lodged a complaint resulting in a Central Bureau of Investigation probe into whether the allocation of the coal blocks was in fact influenced by corruption.
Historically, the economy of India could be characterized as broadly socialist, with the government directing large sectors of the economy through a series of five-year plans. In keeping with this centralised approach, between 1972 and 1976, India nationalised its coal mining industry, with the state-owned companies Coal India Limited (CIL) and Singareni Collieries Company (SCCL) being responsible for coal production.read more Indian Coal Allocation Scam
Regional Disparities in Economic Growth: A Case Study of Indian States
In India, regional imbalance has been one of the major concerns before policy makers and planners. There had been a huge gap between active and vibrant regions and hinterland during pre-independence period in terms of availability of facilities and this has resulted in the form of unequal levels of development both in terms of economic and human.
After independence, reduction in inter-state disparities has been emphasized during successive Five Year Plans, but the menace continued unabated. For instance, the World Bank (2006) in its reported entitled, “India-Inclusive Growth and Service Delivery: Building of India’s Success” has observed sharp differentiation across states since the early 1990s reflects acceleration of growth in some states but declaration in others.
The report further adds that more worryingly, growth failed to pick up in states such as Bihar, Orissa and U.P. that were initially poor to start with, with the result that the gap in performance between India’s rich and poor states widened dramatically during the 1990s.
The World Bank (2008) again in its recent release “The Growth Report Strategies for sustained Growth and Inclusive Development” has mentioned that disparity in income distribution in India has risen during 1993-2005 which is revealed by fact that Gini-coefficient in this connection has risen from 0.3152 in 1993-94 to 0.3676 in 2004-05. The Draft Eleventh Five Year Plan (2007-2012, vol. I), has also admitted that regional disparities have continued to grow and the gap have been accentuated as the benefits of economic growth have been largely confined to the better developed areas.
The present study has been undertaken against this backdrop. In order to accomplished the task, inter-state disparity in total as well as per capita SDP for 20 major Indian states for the period 1980-2002 has been examined with the help of inequality indices that are based on properties of Lorenz Curve, Atkinson’s social welfare function. Herfindahl’s Concentration indices etc. Click here to read more…
