What are the areas of primary focus for "public entrepreneurship"? which deals with revitalization of government agencies?
Answers
2.1.1 Poverty eradication is one of the major objectives of planned development. The magnitude of the problem is still quite staggering. Thirty six per cent of the Indian population was below poverty line (BPL) in 1993-94, the latest year for which the data are available and the absolute number of poor was 320 million, out of which 244 million (37 per cent of the rural population) lived in rural areas. The incidence of poverty declined from 54.9 per cent in 1973-74 to 36 per cent in 1993-94. But the absolute number of poor did not decline much over this period of 20 years. There were 321 million poor in 1973-74 and 320 million in 1993-94; in the rural areas the corresponding numbers were 261 million and 244 million.
2.1.2 The main determinants of poverty are (i) lack of income and purchasing power attributable to lack of productive employment and considerable underemployment and not to lack of employment per se; (ii) a continuous increase in the price of food, especially foodgrains which account for 70-80 per cent of the consumption basket; and (iii) inadequacy of social infrastructure, affecting the quality of life of the people and their employability