Drawing on a paper entitled "Where Have All the Factories Gone? Growth and Concentration of Sub-National Manufacturing Activity in India (2019)" by Krishna Ramaswamy and Data from Annual Survey of Industries for FY23, the 482-page long Economic Survey 2024-25 states:"Bihar hardly has any factories".
The Economic Survey claims that consumption patterns and choices of rural households reveals that direct benefit transfers (DBTs) is benefiting women in the target population who are obtaining loans from self-help groups (SHGs) in select districts of Bihar. This claim is based on Artha Global’s Centre for Rapid Insights (CRI)'s survey of approximately 2400 married women between the ages of 25 and 45 in rural areas, who were relatively less financially privileged, in selected districts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, and Uttar Pradesh in November 2024. The sample population is poorer than the Indian population on average. This demographic group was chosen for study because an increased female labour force participation rate (FLFPR) has been observed among this group. As a popular target for DBTs and cash as well as loans through SHGs from both the Centre and various state governments, a survey of this group allows for an analysis of patterns of consumption due to cash transfers and loans. This claim merits scrutiny in the light of observations by scholars like Jean Dreze who have warned against turning citizens into “guinea-pigs for immature financial technologies such as the Aadhaar Payments Bridge System".
It refers to Bihar’s Mission Daksh aims to provide personalised mentoring for lagging students to achieve grade-level competencies by 2025 in the context of "Peer Teaching: A pathway to achieving foundational literacy and numeracy (FLN)". It states that school education lays the foundation of a country's education system." The National Education Policy (NEP) 2020 stipulates that FLN is critical for education and lifelong learning success. The Department of School Education and Literacy launched the National Mission, “National Initiative for Proficiency in Reading with Understanding and Numeracy (NIPUN Bharat),” in July 2021 to ensure that every child in the country necessarily attains FLN by the end of Grade 3, by 2026-27.24 It covers three years of FLN in preschool and Grades 1, 2 and 3. Tthe education system is deploying innovative pedagogies and teaching methods to ensure that every child achieves FLN.
The Survey mentions Bihar among the States in the Indo-Gangetic Plains which are at a higher risk of climate change impacts.
The review of preliminary unaudited estimates of 27 states including Bihar for the period April - November 202424 corroborates the inference about greater reliance on share in central taxes. The Gross Tax Revenue (GTR) of the union and own tax revenue (OTR) of the states have increased at comparable pace during this period. However, the overall tax revenue position of the state governments appears better
as of November, because of increased tax devolution by the union. Among the state-specific taxes, stamps and registration, sales tax, state excise duties, and other taxes and duties registered positive growth, whereas land revenue declined, for states as a collective. It does not explain the reason for fall decline in the land revenue.
The central government and 29 states/UTs have pre-published their draft rules under the four Labour Codes. Some of the remaining seven states/UTs have pre-published their draft rules for one or more Labour Codes.
Bihar is among the 14 States which has increased the threshold of the number of workers from 100 to 300 for prior approval of appropriate government before retrenchment/ layoff/ closure of establishments in factory/plantation/ mining sector.
Bihar is one of the six States which has notified Fixed Term Employment under the existing Industrial Employment (Standing Orders) Act, 1946.
Bihar is one of the 12 States which has increased the threshold from 20 workers to 50 workers for applicability of the Contract Labour (Regulation & Abolition) Act, 1970.
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