[ARTICLE] The North-South Gap in India

From India's Financial Express, an interesting article by V. Govindarajan on India's regional disparities, Regional Disparities: Some Issues And Challenges.

The issue of disparities in the regional growth rates and development in India has been attracting attention, particularly in the recent past. The southern states, namely, Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamilnadu, together with Maharashtra, have been doing relatively better, and have clocked a growth rate of about 6.3% per annum in the decade, 1992-2002, while the BIMARU (Bihar, MP, Rajasthan, UP) states have registered a growth rate of only 4.6%. The first set of states has consistently ranked higher than the BIMARU states with respect to the Human Development Indices.

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[ARTICLE] Sikorski was right

A widely-syndicated article (excerptedhere from The Guardian) on meagre benefits from the war for non-American components of the coalition:

Postwar Payback Deemed Meager for Europe

Thursday December 11, 2003 7:01 PM

By BETH GARDINER

Associated Press Writer

LONDON (AP) - Countries that opposed the Iraq war complained when their companies were barred from seeking U.S. reconstruction contracts, but even Washington's European supporters have reaped few concrete rewards, analysts and officials across the continent say.

Many European leaders have had to settle for personal thank yous from President Bush and the intangible sense that they've earned a greater role on the world stage and warmer ties with the United States.

That beats the cold shoulder given to anti-war governments. The Bush administration on Tuesday said companies from countries that didn't make a military contribution in Iraq would not be allowed to bid for $18.6 billion of Iraqi reconstruction contracts.

But given the diplomatic pressure the United States exerted before the war, supportive leaders may have expected more. Poland, for instance, had hoped rebuilding contracts would boost its sluggish economy.

``I don't see much economic payback, or it is unproportional to our expectations and to the scale of our engagement in Iraq,'' said Daniel Passent of Polityka magazine.