Why are there more crimes these days

Only a few months back, last year, we were all happy that the crime situation in Bihar had significantly improved and we had very few crimes in Bihar. But in the last few months there are so many news articles about rapes in Bihar. What is happening. Are the people in Bihar , riding on the growing prosperity wave, getting more frugal and indulging in things like rape. Is prosperity changing the mental attitude of people? Or is it that media is better represented in Bihar now more than ever before and therefore many things which did not make news before have started making news now... Or is there a breakdown in the law enforcement mechanism in Bihar resulting in more crimes happening.

Or is there some other reason which I am not thinking of. In any of the cases , the government has to start thinking and reacting quickly to remedy the situation otherwise whatever edge, goodwill and trust that they have gained from people will quickly evaporate if the situation does not improve at the earliest.

Coal linkage for Barauni Thermal power plant - 500MW of power

Nitish Kumar, after following up for years to get coal linkages from the Government of India, has finally managed to get his first victory in this area, albeit a small one : He has managed to get coal linkages for two 250 MW power plants in Barauni.These state run power plants are expected to be up and running by July 2014 and will add 500 MW of power for the state.

This is a good win for Bihar even though it came after a long drawn campaign and possibly in return for supporting the the President/Vice President elections in India. People are debating and agruing about it all over the web, but at the end of the day , it is Bihar and the people living in Bihar who will benefit by this coal linkage. Kudos to Nitish Kumar for maneuvering through it.

More details can be found in the Times of India article " Nitish Kumar gets coal supply for Bihar plant with PM's help"

Bihar's GDP 2011-12

At the beginning of June, the data on GDP for the year 2011-12 was out. Once again Bihar was the fastest growing state in terms of GDP. Bihar grew at 13.13 % based on constant (2004-05) prices.

Congratulations are in order for everyone who is making this possible. This is great news  because this growth is more due to inclusive growth i.e. growth due to government spending on infrastructure, law and order, etc and not reliant on the corporate world. What this means is that the current growth will not be so much affected by the economic situation in the corporate world. At the same time, Bihar's GDP will get an impetus if and when the corporate world starts getting into Bihar in a big way. Hence hopefully the Bihar GDP growth story will continue to grow.

The Top 5 GDP growth states for 2011-2012 were

State	2011-12 GDP growth percentage
Bihar	13.13%
Delhi	11.34%
Puducherry	10.95%
Chattisgarh	10.81%
Goa	10.65%

With this growth, Bihar's GDP is now larger than Punjab and is the 13th largest state in terms of GDP in India. Even though Bihar's GDP is now larger than Punjab, we still have a long way to go: The per capita income of Bihar is much lower than that of Punjab.

Anyway, its good to see that Bihar's GDP is continuing on a growth path. As per some analyst that I read, if Bihar continues on this growth path for the next 15 years, it will definitely become a prosperous state. Bihar's GDP from 2004-05 until 2011-12 is as follows:

Year	Bihar's GDP	Percent growth over previous year
2004-05	77,781
2005-06	78,494	0.92
2006-07	92,427	17.75
2007-08	99,492	7.64
2008-09	113,994	14.58
2009-10	125,875	10.42
2010-11	144,472	14.77
2011-12	163,439	13.13

I am sharing the GDP data of various states and union territories in India. The GDP for all the states and union territories at constant (2004-05) prices for the year 2011-12 are as follows:

Rank	States	2011-12 (in INR Crores)
1	Maharashtra	NA (2010-11 : 775,020)
2	Tamil Nadu	428,109
3	Uttar Pradesh	419,090
4	Andhra Pradesh	407,949
5	Gujarat	NA (2010-11 : 365,295)
6	West Bengal	340,234
7	Karnataka	297,964
8	Delhi	213,429
9	Kerala	208,468
10	Rajasthan	NA  (2010-11 : 204,398)
11	Madhya Pradesh	NA  (2010-11 : 182,647)
12	Haryana	179,589
13	Bihar	163,429
14	Punjab	157,455
15	Odisha	137,585
16	Chattisgarh	87,723
17	Jharkhand	83,170
18	Assam	80,465
19	Uttarakhand	55,606
20	Himachal Pradesh	42,032
21	Jammu and Kashmir	41,367
22	Goa	23,151
23	Chandigarh	NA (2010-11: 15,754)
24	Tripura	15,463
25	Meghalaya	11,760
26	Puducherry	11,448
27	Nagaland	8,929
28	Manipur	7,632
29	Arunachal Pradesh	5,899
30	Mizoram	NA (2010-11 : 4,557)
31	Sikkim	NA (2010-11: 3,642)
32	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	3,003

If anyone wants more details of all the states GDP, historic data from 2004-05 then the details can be found at GDP of Indian States (2011-12)