Infant mortality rate 61 per thousand births against national average of 64 per thousand.
Cooperative dairy scheme, COMPFED, ranks 10th in the country. Collection has gone up nearly seven-fold since 1987-88. With an annual turnover of Rs 400 crore, the World Bank describes it as a "major success story".
Despite floods and drought, agricultural production is up by one per cent and the state is now marginally surplus in foodgrains.
Top producer of litchis, accounting for about 70 per cent of national production.
Death rate is 7.9 per thousand. National average: 8.1.
Lots Of Bad News
Bihar's per capita income is Rs 4,048 per year, around one-third of the national average of Rs 10,964.
42.60 per cent of the population is below the poverty line. National average: 26.10 per cent.
Less than half the people in the state—47.5 per cent—are literate. National figure: 65.38 per cent.
Almost at the bottom of the Human Development Index (economic, health, education): 0.367 compared to all-India average 0.472.
Per capita developmental expenditure Rs 3,206. That's less than half of national average of Rs 6,749.
Per capita tenth Plan size (Rs 2,534) less than a third of other states like Gujarat (Rs 9,289).
Number of kidnappings: 32,600 (from 1992 to September 2004).
One of the lowest per capita consumption of electricity (140.8 KwH). All-India figure: 354.75 KwH
Population growth rate: 28.4 per cent. National average: 21.3 per cent.
Sex ratio of 921 females per thousand males lower than the national average of 933.