Some Good News
- 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.
