Bibhudatta Pradhan Shivani Kumaresan Bloomberg

One of the poorest states, Bihar has been struggling with an outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome since the start of June, affecting more than 600 children in more than a dozen districts. The situation was worsened by a heat wave that saw temperatures crossing 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in recent weeks.

Spending by political parties and candidates to woo 900 million voters in the just concluded polls cost them nearly 600 billion rupees ($8.7 billion), more than double of 2014 polls, according to the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.

One of the poorest states, Bihar has been struggling with an outbreak of Acute Encephalitis Syndrome since the start of June, affecting more than 600 children in more than a dozen districts. The situation was worsened by a heat wave that saw temperatures crossing 45 degrees Celsius (113 Fahrenheit) in recent weeks.

Spending by political parties and candidates to woo 900 million voters in the just concluded polls cost them nearly 600 billion rupees ($8.7 billion), more than double of 2014 polls, according to the Delhi-based Centre for Media Studies.