Chhattisgarh, on November 1, 2000, emerged as a state of
Indian Union. Earlier, it was a part of Madhya Pradesh.
Today, it is one of the fastest growing economies among
the newly formed Indian states. The state has abundant natural
resources. It has rich biodiversity and rich cultural diversity.
Being a newly formed state, its fiscal position is healthy
and the government has been kept small. The state occupies
ninth position in terms of geographical area. The population
of the state is 21 million, of which 79% lives in rural
areas. Nearly 44% of the geographical area of the state
is under forest cover. The state's resources include minerals
such as iron-ore, coal, bauxite, dolomite, limestone, gold
and diamonds. It has 49% of the country's diamond deposits.
Chhattisgarh is trying to attract investments in the IT
industry based on these resources. Chhattisgarh wants to
be a state of job-providers rather than a state of job-seekers.
The government is trying hard to take the leadership role
and develop the state economically and socially development
over the next few years. The state government is coming
up with e-governance, the state's vision for the good governance.
The first phase of the e-government roadmap for Chhattisgarh
was prepared by the National Institute for Smart Governance
(NISG), Hyderabad in association with Administrative Staff
College of India (ASCI) located in Hyderabad. Companies
such as NMDC, Essar-Steel, Jindal steel, ACC, Birla Cement,
and SAIL, etc., are already present in the state and they
are helping the state to develop its economy.
The state suffers from lack of sufficient healthcare professionals.
Till recent past, the state had only one medical college.
But now it is in the process of setting up another college
at Bilaspur. The state's literacy rate is on par with that
of the country (65%). In 2001, the male literacy rate was
77.8% and the female literacy rate was 52.4%. Percentage
of people below the poverty line was 39. The government
plans to bring it down to 19% by 2010. The state plans to
meet the increasing human resources needs of the IT industry
by setting up more engineering colleges and a IT University.
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