Thursday, July 15, 2010

Goa Blog

Goa Blog

Delhi, Kerala, Goa have least number of poor: UNDP

Posted: 15 Jul 2010 07:08 AM PDT

Amidst acute poverty across South Asia, the five states of Delhi, Kerala, Goa, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh have the least number of poor people in India, according to a new measure of global poverty developed at the University of Oxford for the UNDP.

The new measure, called the Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI), has been developed and applied by the Oxford Poverty and Human Development Initiative (OPHI).

It will be featured in the forthcoming 20th anniversary edition of the UN Development Programme Human Development Report.

A detailed analysis using the MPI reveals that South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa have comparable intensities of poverty, according to an OPHI working paper titled ‘Acute Multidimensional Poverty: A New Index for Developing Countries’.

In terms of human lives, South Asia has the world’s highest levels of poverty.

Fifty-one per cent of the population of Pakistan is MPI poor, 58 per cent in Bangladesh, 55 per cent in India, and 65 per cent in Nepal.

The analysis states: “We find that Delhi has an MPI equivalent to Iraq (which ranks 45), whereas Bihar’s MPI is similar to Guinea´s (the 8th poorest country in the ranking).

“In terms of headcount, in Delhi and Kerala 14 per cent and 16 per cent of the population are MPI poor, respectively, whereas in Jharkhand 77 per cent of the population are MPI poor and in Bihar, 81 per cent”.

Other ‘top ten’ states with the least number of poor in India are Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Haryana and Gujarat.

The analysis by MPI creators reveals that there are more ‘MPI poor’ people in eight Indian states (421 million in Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, and West Bengal) than in the 26 poorest African countries combined (410 million).

“Just to provide a sense of perspective, the population of the poorest Indian state Bihar, with 95 million people, exceeds the sum of nine of the ten poorest African countries,” according to the authors Sabina Alkire and Maria Emma Santos.

Further analysis shows that in India, the Scheduled Tribes have the highest MPI (0.482), almost the same as Mozambique, and a headcount of 81 per cent.

The Scheduled Castes have a headcount of 66 per cent and their MPI is a bit better than Nigeria. Fifty-eight per cent of other Backward Castes are MPI poor.

Courtesy:NDTV

Goa abolishes VAT on cooking gas

Posted: 14 Jul 2010 09:46 AM PDT

The Goa government on Wednesday decided to drop value added tax (VAT) on cooking gas and marginally reduced it on petrol and diesel, Chief Minister Digambar Kamat said. Addressing a press conference here, Kamat said that the four per cent VAT imposed on domestic cooking gas had been abolished to beat the effects of the recent hike in petroleum prices.

Goa: Cooking Gas

“With VAT on LPG (cooking gas) being abolished, the price of a domestic LPG cylinder will be slashed by at least Rs 15 per unit. We have also reduced VAT by two per cent on petrol and diesel, which will reduce the per litre price on these products by 0.88 and 0.70 rupees,” Kamat said, adding that a notification to the effect would be issued on Thursday.

Courtesy: sify
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