BHUBANESWAR: Orissa's literacy rate might have grown exponentially in the last decade to touch 73.45 per cent, almost on par with the National average of 74.04, but the Naxal hotbeds of the State continue to wallow in illiteracy.

Literacy rate in the Maoist-infested districts of Malkangiri, Koraput and Nabarangpur still hover below 50 per cent while Rayagada and Gajapati districts have just man