Bihar

The delay in the census and the stay over the caste survey in Bihar are ominous signs for good governance.

The study reveals that Bihar will miss the nutrition-related target of SDG-2 by 2030 based on the NFHS-3, NFHS-4, and NFHS-5 data. District-level planning is needed to design nutrition-specifi c programmes and control malnutrition at an early stage, according to the fi ndings.

Do lockdowns and mobility restrictions contain the spread of COVID-19? Data was collected on district-level non-pharmaceutical interventions, using government notifications and news reports, in six major Indian states to assess the impact of NPIs on COVID-19 transmission and fatality in 2020. Findings suggest that NPIs slowed COVID-19 death rates in Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, and Andhra Pradesh. Interventions that were most associated with slowing fatalities were temple closures, retail closures, and curfews. Even with incomplete compliance, limiting mass gatherings in face of incipient viral waves may save lives.

JP to BJP: Bihar After Lalu and Nitish by Santosh Singh, New Delhi: Sage Publications and Vitasta, 2021; pp xxiii + 302, `595.

The growth of the manufacturing sector is important for employing a growing labour force and much is also dependent on their skill level. Enterprise surveys in six sample towns of Bihar, a state characterised by slow industrialisation and urbanisation, find evidence of fairly strong rural–urban linkages for manufacturing enterprises. Although the linkages indicate that the manufacturing sector has the maximum potential to create employment by absorbing the surplus labour in the rural areas, it was found that this sector has been languishing in the sample towns. The findings also flag the challenges and areas of growth for industries.