The Centre has set up an expert committee for evolving a composite development index for States.
This committee will be headed by Raghuram Rajan, Chief Economic Advisor to the Finance Ministry. It will comprise of six members including the Chairman.
This panel will consider backwardness of the States in terms of measures like distance of the State from the national average under criteria such as per capita income and other human development indicators, an official release said.
The committee has been asked to submit its report within sixty days. The terms of reference will be issued separately, the release added.
The other members of this committee are Shaibal Gupta, Bharat Ramaswami, Najeeb Jung, Nirija G Jayal and Tuhin Pandey.
Finance Minister P Chidambaram had in Budget 2013-14 proposed evolution of new criteria for determining backwardness of a region for devolution of funds under the Backward Region Grants Fund.
The present criteria for determining backwardness are based on density of population, terrain and length of international borders.
Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar has been demanding special category status for Bihar to spur the State’s development process.