Nitish Kumar addresses press conference in Patna on September 26, 2013.
Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has welcomed the Raghuram Rajan panel report that has ranked his Bihar among India's least advanced states.
The report has made a case for ending the "special category" criteria for providing additional assistance to poorer states and has suggested a new matrix to decide on which states should get the most financial assistance from the Centre.
The Bihar chief minister looked please today as he said, "It is even better that there will be something newer than the special category. It means the doors are now open for more help to us and that is what our demand was...we said earlier that new parameters have to be implemented." (
Highlights from Nitish Kumar's press briefing)
The committee was set up under then Chief Economic Advisor Raghuram Rajan, who is now RBI governor, amid incessant demand from Mr Kumar that Bihar be granted special category status as a backward state.
Mr Kumar said that he expected negative reactions, but that did bother him. He congratulated the people of his state for creating a 'nationwide impact' with their battle for 'right to development '
Using a 'Multi Dimensional Index (MDI)', the Rajan report, released by Finance Minister P Chidambaram today, says Odisha and Bihar are among the least developed states and Goa and Kerala are among the seven most developed. (
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Gujarat, which chief minister Narendra Modi likes to project as a development model, has been categorised in the middle rung as one of 11 less developed states.
The report has suggested that each state should get a basic fixed allocation of Central funds and an additional allocation depending on its development needs and development performance.