With impressive macro-economic rates of growth and a booming stock market, India is one of the most exciting economies in the world today. India has reportedly displaced the United States as the second most attractive destination for foreign direct investment in the world after China (Business Standard, 2005,P.1). This spectacular overall performance, however, hides one dark spot that the people of India exposed through Verdict 2004. The benefits of this growth have not been evenly distributed. Large parts of India do not find a place on the development map of the country. In a pioneering study on the Domestic Product of State of India, the Economic and Political Weekly Research Foundation found that many \"low-income and poorly-performing major states have not only persisted with their low-growth syndrome but have also experienced further deceleration in growth rates in the 1990\'s ( EPWRF, 2003, p.26). World Bank economists Datt and Ravallion (2002) find that \" the geographic and sectoral pattern of India\'s growth process had greatly attenuated its aggregate impact on poverty\" (p.1)
National Significance ofthe Watershed Programme : Chapter 1
by S. Parthasarathy, Ministry of Rural Development, 26 January, 2006