An economic think-tank today said the feel good in the economy claimed by the NDA government was ‘‘fragile’’ and listed out 30-point deficiencies, saying nearly half of the country’s population did not have access to basic healthcare.The Indian Institute of Planning and Management (IIPM) wondered ‘‘is India really shining’’ with nearly 24 crore Indians going hungry every day and about 30 crore people living below the poverty line.In its economic review 2003-04, IIPM found that Rs 50,000 crore worth of food grains were wasted in the country, which was in excess of what Australia produced. It also said while the budget for 2003-04 promised to cover only 50 lakh families under Antoyaday Scheme, 52 million tonnes of food-grains were rotting in godowns.Lamenting that government’s claims of India shining and the feel good factor had been ‘‘sheer luck’’ with certain positive economic factors — soaring agricultural output, rising forex reserves and sensex, IIPM founder director M K Chaudhuri said ‘‘peeping deep into the 8.0 per cent growth rate, one finds that all these factors are fragile and short-lived, which are not sustainable for a long period.’’IIPM said only 25 per cent of the consumers’ rupee reaches the farmers as compared to 50 per cent in developed countries, indicating the extent of pilferage through middlemen. It also said the per capita availability of land has been declining over the years and that the country was spending a paltry 0.3 per cent of agricultural GDP in R&D as compared to 2.8 per cent in US and 4.02 per cent in Australia.
