For example, Gov. Chris Christie has been a persistent critic of the state's practice of sending more aid to 31 districts identified by courts as being particularly poor or underfunded.

WSJ: Study Weighs Recession Toll

The authority rates all but three of the basin's 23 river valleys as being in a poor ecological state.

ECONOMIST: Australia's water war

It seems as if India's influential Planning Commission realised this when it warned that the poor state of the country's economy was being forgotten amid the political crisis being faced by the United Front government.

BBC: South Asia: Rupee down