On Sunday, Rajasthan, with a tradition of throwing out incumbent governments, will go to polls. Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot of the Congress is asking for votes on his pro-people governance, which has included liberal spending on social security schemes, such as free medicine.This is reflected in numbers, as the state has been consistent in allocating half its total spend on social security. Yet, it has a high infant mortality rate, poor sex ratio and a lack of toilet facilities.The state, however, has positives in spite of a high rural population. The proportion of people with access to banking facility is higher than the national average. So, too, is the case with households having mobiles and treated water.In the third instalment of a series leading to Assembly elections in five states, Business Standard provides an analysis of the performance and health of its economy.

Rajasthan in numbers

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Business Standard looks at the assets of Aam Aadmi Party's Shazia Ilmi, a social activist and former journalist

Shazia Ilmi: Asset watch

Apropos the editorial "A more mature federation" (November 28) has brought out the tussle between the Centre and the states in India's continuing battle with the idea of a functioning federalism. India has still to get its act ready for dealing with the right of nationalities for self-determination that is an essential step towards converting an imperial state to a nation-state. The fault squarely lies with the Centre and the Congress, which occupied the central government, which blithely assumed that it was the inheritor of the legacy and rights of Imperial Britain, and the states were mere administrative set-ups. Even the annexations or accessions of Junagarh, Kashmir, Hyderabad, Goa and Sikkim follow the old British ideas of allies, dependencies and protectorates moving to direct control. The same illusion afflicts our foreign policy, which continues to believe that the boundary lines drawn arbitrarily by the British, and reluctantly accepted or observed by the then weaker neighbour

Letters: An internal battle

The Association for Democratic Reforms has tracked various characteristics of legislators and candidates for elections in India for some time now

StatsGuru: Decoding the mix of Assembly poll candidates

This refers to Arvind Panagariya's article "Some myths about education" (November 29). It is true that the focus of education policy has been on the inputs, but only partly. While the "quantity" of input in the form of financial outlays has been in focus, the quality of input in the form of curriculum, teachers and infrastructure has been ignored. A major reason has been a penchant on the part of the government for showing higher enrolment numbers and a continuous improvement in literacy percentages through broader coverage. Had the government not kept a vice-like grip on the education sector and given private entities more freedom, the output would have been much better.Kishor Kulkarni, MumbaiLetters can be mailed, faxed or e-mailed to:The Editor, Business StandardNehru House, 4 Bahadur Shah Zafar MargNew Delhi 110 002Fax: (011) 23720201  ·  E-mail: letters@bsmail.inAll letters must have a postal address and telephone number

Letters: Quality education

Sugarcane farmers in Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra are rioting, and owners are refusing to open their mills citing high sugarcane prices. The government cannot solve the problem as long as sugar production is more than the demand. The buffer stock for sugar this season is nine million tonnes. While the season's production will be 25 million tonnes, the demand is only for 23 million tonnes. Exports are not possible because of low global prices of sugar. The only solution is to use mill machinery to make sugar from sugarcane juice, and convert at least 25 per cent of the juice into fuel grade ethanol and blend it with petrol. The government has said that oil marketing firms must come to a price agreement with ethanol producers, and five per cent ethanol addition to petrol has been made "mandatory". Alcohol from molasses must continue to be supplied to liquor and chemical industries - one of the oldest industries that employ millions. Also, the use of 85 billion litres of fuel ethanol wor

Letters: Sugarcane solutions

The report "Top 50 districts have seven life insurance agents for 1,000 people" (November 29) presents a depressing position for the bottom 120 districts that had an average of 0.7 agent licences for 1,000 people. It is good that such data are being compiled since it would go a long way towards achieving "financial inclusion" through the financial services industry, of which the life insurance business is a prominent part. Even more effective than this criterion will be the one that shows how many villages with a population of more than 1,000 do not have even a single life insurance agent. The state-owned life insurer used to compile such data even in the 1960s. During their mandatory annual branch inspection, inspection officers had to scrutinise the centre-wise register of agents the branch was maintaining, and report how many villages with a population of more than 1,000 did not have an agent. The vast organisation that it had built over the decades was because of such a determined

Letters: Insurance assurance

Despite several assertions by the newly-appointed MCX-SX management that the Rs 5,400 crore National Spot Exchange Ltd (NSEL) scam will not impact the operations of the stock exchange, one of the key questions candidates for jobs are being asked is on this very subject. The interview panel, which includes former home secretary G K Pillai , former LIC managing director Thomas Mathew and former deputy governor of the Reserve Bank of India V Leeladhar, among others, asked some aspirants, "How could the NSEL scam have been averted?" Some candidates were stumped by the question because they were under the impression that they would be asked questions about improving the performance of MCX-SX.

The NSEL effect

Maybe businessmen are taking a tip from politicians in leveraging big marriage ceremonies to useful purpose. With the general elections less than half a year away, a prominent United Progressive Alliance cabinet minister from Uttar Pradesh had to attend 36 weddings in one single day. Not surprisingly, by the time the minister did the rounds, the bride had left in at least three of the weddings.

Nuptial politics

The high-profile wedding of the daughter of the CEO of a prominent information technology company in Bangalore turned into a public relations jamboree of epic proportions. It was so pervasive and in-your-face that the agency concerned kept calling journalists stating that the CEO personally wanted to meet the media and offering to book a time slot for the meeting - at the wedding. When weddings are turned over to PR companies, it is a matter of time before we see wedding planners hiring telecallers to invite guests, just as event managers do for various seminars.

The wedding PRs

Isro has already achieved a great deal on Mars mission

Slingshot success

A firm bottom

Global sugar production for 2013-14 is estimated at 175 million tonnes (mt), about one mt lower than last year, as the sharp fall in production in India and Russia is somewhat offset by growth in China and Thailand

Bittersweet times

Indian politics discovers the joys of the internet

AstroTurfing hits India

Also, mass-market brands are the most valuable

Brand IT rules

Centre leaves all its disinvestment to the last minute

Repeating an error

This refers to the report "Bharatiya Mahila Bank starts with 7 branches" (November 20). Bharatiya Mahila Bank is a classic case study of how the government at the Centre can act fast if it wants to - getting a budget proposal passed in February, and establishing a bank itself in less than eight months. No one in the media has commented on the speed with which a new bank was set up by infusing ~1,000 crore as initial capital. What could have been the reason for this urgency? Is it the need to empower women? Or, is it the issue of balancing the gender discrimination? None of these got prioritised in decision-making. With state elections round the corner and the impending general elections in May 2014, the ruling party has planned to snatch the votes from women. Sexual offences against women had raked up public anger on the ruling party. If we are to believe the prime minister, it is only a "small step" in the direction of empowering women. Yes, it can wean away women vegetable vendors fr

Letters: Empowering women?

This refers to the editorial "Buying at home" (November 27). Indigenisation of our defence procurement is imperative and a strategic need .The private sector can play a major role in meeting this need. The bane of India's defence procurement has been the role of middlemen. Contrary to the claims of transparency, the procurement system is riddled with scams, inflated prices and huge pay-offs. The private sector should take the lead, as it does in other advanced countries. An article in Global Times, the Chinese Communist party newspaper, had this to say on India's defence preparedness and its vulnerability: "India faces huge vulnerability. More than 80 per cent of its critical weapons systems are imported from France, the US, Russia and Israel. If these countries cut off supplies or ammunition during a conflict, India would be helpless... But for how long can borrowed weaponry lead to genuine security?". China produces most of its defence requirement, and even exports to other nations.

Letters: On borrowed time

Photographs of former Karnataka Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa sitting on the floor of the Legislative Assembly in dharna (or protest) to demand the extension of a special marriage scheme to Muslim girls have been splashed all over the media. Initially, when he decided to sit there on dharna, one of the staff members in the Assembly wanted to offer him a chair but the Speaker did not allow any such privilege. "If he wants to sit on a dharna, let him do so sitting on the floor," the Speaker said.

Yeddyurappa floored

Launching a consumer education series on insurance through animated films, T S Vijayan, chairman of the Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority (Irda), was curious to know why the film used animated characters. Several members of Irda were very good actors, he said, and could well have been part of the film. This comment evinced a loud cheer from the audience. Several people, however, were anxious to know what exactly he meant when he said members of the insurance regulatory body were "good actors".

Regulators as 'actors'

Though men may not be allowed to take loans or avail themselves of banking services from India's first commercial public sector bank for women, they have not been left out when it comes to employment in the bank. According to its website, men account for about 36 per cent of the candidates found provisionally eligible for appointment as probationary officers in the Bharatiya Mahila Bank.

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