BIMARU

From Freepedia

BIMARU is an acronym for the four large states of Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh in northern India. The BIMARU states are distinct from India's other states in a number of social and economic indicators: higher than average population growth rates; lower than average literacy rates; slower than average economic growth rates. The differences in economic and population growth rates between the BIMARU states and other Indian states, particularly the prosperous states of South India, sharpened in the 1990s. The economy of the four BIMARU states grew at an average of 4.6 percent per year in the 1990s, compared to 6.5 per cent per year for India as a whole. Since population growth in the BIMARU states was higher that the Indian average, the income disparity between the BIMARU states and India as a whole also increased. The BIMARU acronym seems to have been coined in this way following the Hindi (national language of India) word BIMAR which means sick.