As per Sample Registration System (SRS), 2013 reports published by Registrar General of India the Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) of India is 40 per 1000 live births and as per Sample Registration System (SRS), 2011-13 reports Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) is 167 per 1,00,000 live births in the Country.
Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 4 target is to reduce Child Mortality by two-third between 1990 and 2015. In case of India, it translates into a goal of reducing Infant mortality rate from 88 per thousand live births in 1990 to 29 in 2015.
Under the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) 5, the target is to reduce Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three quarters between 1990 & 2015. This translates to reducing the MMR from 560 in 1990 to 140 in 2015.
State/UT-wise infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio is given below:-
States/UTs-wise status of infant mortality rate (IMR) and
maternal mortality ratio (MMR) in India
Source: Sample registration System (SRS), RGI office, 2013 & 2011-13 reports
Under National Health Mission, the following interventions are being implemented to reduce infant mortality rate and maternal mortality ratio in the Country:
10. JananiShishuSurakshaKaryakaram (JSSK) entitles all pregnant women delivering in public health institutions to absolutely free and no expense delivery including Caesarean section. The initiative stipulates free drugs, diagnostics, blood and diet, besides free transport from home to institution, between facilities in case of a referral and drop back home. Similar entitlements have been put in place for all sick infants accessing public health institutions for treatment.
11. Universal Immunization Programme (UIP): Vaccination protects children against many life threatening diseases such as Tuberculosis, Diphtheria, Pertussis, Polio, Tetanus, Hepatitis B and Measles. Infants are thus immunized against seven vaccine preventable diseases every year. The Government of India supports the vaccine programme by supply of vaccines and syringes, cold chain equipment and provision of operational costs.
12. Strengthening Facility based newborn care: Newborn care corners (NBCC) are being set up at all health facilities where deliveries take place; Special New Born Care Units (SNCUs) and New Born Stabilization Units (NBSUs) are also being set up at appropriate facilities for the care of sick newborn including preterm babies.
13. Home Based Newborn Care (HBNC): Home based newborn care through ASHA has been initiated to improve new born practices at the community level and early detection and referral of sick new born babies
14. Capacity building of health care providers: Various trainings are being conducted under National Health Mission (NHM) to build and upgrade the skills of health care providers in basic and comprehensive obstetric care of mother during pregnancy, delivery and essential newborn care.
15. Management of Malnutrition: Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRCs) have been established for management of severe acute malnutrition in children.
16. India Newborn Action Plan (INAP) has been launched to reduce neonatal mortality and stillbirths.
17. Newer interventions to reduce newborn mortality- Vitamin K injection at birth, Antenatal corticosteroids for preterm labour, kangaroo mother care and injection gentamicin for possible serious bacillary infection.
18. Intensified Diarrhoea Control Fortnight was observed in August 2014 focusing on ORS and Zinc distribution for management of diarrhoea and feeding practices.
19. Integrated Action Plan for Pneumonia and Diarrhoea (IAPPD) launched in four states with highest infant mortality (UP, MP, Bihar and Rajasthan).
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28 February 2015
Steps Taken to Reduce IMR and MMR
Food Subsidy Bill stands at Rs. 107823.75 crore during 2014-15
Food Subsidy Bill stands at Rs. 107823.75 crore during 2014-15 (upto January, 2015), shows an increase of 20% over previous year Rationalisation of subsidies and better targeting of beneficiaries will release resources for public investment in agriculture: Economic Survey |
The Economic Survey 2014-15 has acknowledged that the Food Subsidy Bill has increased substantially in the past few years putting a severe strain on the public exchequer.
An amount of Rs. 107823.75 crore has been released as Food Subsidy during the year 2014-15 (upto January 9, 2015). This is a substantial increase of 20.15% over 2013-14 when an amount of Rs. 89740 crore was released as food subsidy.
Provision of minimum nutritional support to the poor through subsidized foodgrains and ensuring price stability in different states are the twin objectives of the food security system.
The Economic Survey states that while the economic cost of wheat and rice has continuously gone up, the issue price has been kept unchanged since July 1, 2002. This has resulted in large amounts of subsidy on foodgrains distributed through the TPDS/NFSA and other welfare schemes.
The Economic Survey also states that agriculture and food sector needs huge investment in research, education, extension, irrigation, fertilizers, and laboratories to test soil, water and commodities, warehousing, cold-storage. Rationalization of subsidies and better targeting of beneficiaries would release resources for public investment in agriculture.
The survey opines that the focus of public expenditure for agriculture so far has been on provision of subsidies (public expenditure in agriculture is only one-fourth of expenditure towards food and fertilizer subsidies, CACP Kharif report 2014-15) and it is time it shifted towards investments to boost productivity. Recommendations of Shanta Kumar Committee provide useful suggestions for the future road-map of food-policy, says the Economic Survey.
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Foodgrains production for 2014-15 estimated at 257.07 million tonnes,Agriculture and allied sectors contribute 18% to GDP and grow by 3.7% in 2013-14
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External Sector is returning to the path of strength and resilience: Economic Survey
As per the Economic Survey, the outlook for the external sector is perhaps the most favorable since the 2008 global financial crisis and especially compared to 2012-13, when elevated oil and gold imports fuelled a surge in the current account deficit.
The Global Economy is likely to gain strength if lower global crude petroleum prices drive the demand recovery process in emerging markets. After the global crisis of 2008, the global economy came under a cloud of uncertainty and prolonged weakness in euro area particularly since 2011. This led the IMF to revise the global growth downwards. The global economic environment appears poised for a change for the better with recent sharp fall in the international prices of crude petroleum which is expected to boost global aggregate demand.
On the Issue of India’s Merchandise Trade, over the last ten years, India’s Merchandise Trade (on custom basis) increased manifold from US$ 195.1 billion in 2004-05 to US$ 764.6 billion in 2013-14 helping in improving India’s share in global exports and imports from 0.8% to 1.0% respectively in 2004 to 1.7% and 2.5% in 2013.
· The Economic Survey says the overall trade performance signals an opportune time for withdrawal of restrictions on gold.
· The financial inflows in excess of the financial requirements has helped shore up foreign exchange reserves (US$ 328.7 billion at the end of January,2015). These have helped the lessen the vulnerability concern that led to serious stress last year.
· Reconciling the benefits of the financial inflows with their impact on exports and the current account remains an important challenge going forward.
In 2013-14, India’s trade deficit(on custom basis) declined to US$ 135.8 billion from a high level of 190.3 billion in 2012-13 mainly on account of a decline in the growth of imports even though growth in exports was sluggish at 4.7%.
The decline in imports owed to lower growth in oil imports (0.4%) and negative growth in gold and silver imports.
Some of the Trade Policy Measures Taken by the Government as per the Economic Survey
Ø To promote domestic manufacturing capabilities different schemes namely FPS, FMS, VKGUY, MLFPS, Served From India Scheme , Agriculture Infrastructure Incentive Scheme(AIIS) for import of goods can be utilized for payment of excise duty for domestic procurement. This is an important measure for import substitution and will help save foreign exchange as well as create additional employment.
Ø Similarly scrips issued under the FPS, FMS, Vishesh Krishi and Gram Udyog Yojana(VKGUY) schemes can be utilized for payment of service tax.
Ø To diversify India’s export, seven new markets (Algeria, Aruba, Austria, Cambodia, Myanmar, Netherlands, Antilles and Ukraine) have been added to FMS and 7 new markets(Belize, Chile, El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras, Morocco and Uruguay) to Special FMS, 46 items to MLFPS and 12 new markets for first time and 100 new products to FPS list.
Even though 2013-14 witnessed a sharp depreciation of the rupee in the initial part of the year with significant reserve drawdown, steps taken by the government and the Reserve Bank of India (RBI) resulted in a rise in the stock of foreign exchange reserves which was placed at US$ 304.2 billion at end-March 2014 as against US$292.0 billion at end-March,2014.
In the first half of 2014-15, India’s foreign exchange reserves increased by US$ 18.1 billion on BoP basis(that is excluding valuation effect).
Economic Survey says among the major economies with current account deficit, India is the second largest foreign exchange reserve holder after Brazil.
Post 1991 BoP crisis India’s prudent external debt policy and management with a focus on sustainability, solvency and liquidity have helped contain the increase in size of external debt to moderate level. India’s total external debt stock at end March 2014 stood at US$ 442.3 billion (8.0 per cent) over the end-March 2013 level.
The rise in the external debt during the period was due to long term debt particularly NRI deposits and commercial borrowings.
At the end of September, 2014, a long term debt accounted for 81.1% of the total external debt vis-a-vis 79.8 per cent at the end of March, 2014 and short term debt accounted for 18.9% of the total external debt vis-à-vis 20.2% at the end of March, 2014.
The net external commercial borrowing has also increased from US$ 2.4 billion in 2013-14 to US $3.4 billion in 2014-15.
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India’s National Solar Mission Being Scaled up Five-Fold to 100,000 Megawatts
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27 February 2015
Recommendations made by the Shome Committee/Tax Administration Refroms Commission |
The Tax Administration Reforms Commission (TARC) has analysed all aspects of tax administration reform in their four reports. The objective is to get all stakeholders-both tax payers and tax officers to operate in ways that promote overall goals of efficiency and equity in tax-collection by facilitating taxpayers with a customer focus, while at the same time, segmenting taxpayers to reduce tax evasion. TARC recommendations comprise many immediate needed reform measures as well as long term structural reforms. The Shome Committee/TARC has pitched for taxing large farmers with incomes above Rs. 50 lakh a year. The reason for this recommendation as given by TARC is that this will broaden the tax payer base and help mobilize additional revenue without affecting any but a miniscule proportion of the very large farmers whose annual income exceeds the threshold limit of Rs. 50 lakhs. Currently, the recommendations of the TARC are under examination of the Government. |
From Carbon Subsidy to Carbon Tax: India’s Green Actions
Economic Survey 2014-15 acknowledges the green actions taken by India, including imposing significantly higher taxation of petroleum products and thereby reenergizing the renewable energy sector. India shifted from a carbon subsidization regime to one of significant carbon taxation regime, from a negative price to an implicit positive price on carbon emissions. India has cut subsidies and increased taxes on fossil fuels (petrol and diesel) turning a carbon subsidy regime into one of carbon taxation, by putting an effective price on emissions. This has significantly increased petrol and diesel price while serving as price signal to reduce fuel burnt and hence CO2 emissions. Calculating CO2 emission reductions from measures taken for petrol and diesel suggests that there will be a net reduction of 11 million tons of CO2 emissions in less than a year compared to the baseline or 0.6 percent India’s annual emissions. In addition, India has increased the coal cess from Rs. 50 per ton to Rs. 100 per ton, which is equivalent to a carbon tax of about US$ 1 per ton. A higher tax on coal offsets the domestic externalities including health cost of coal for power generation. The Economic Survey points out that any rationalization of coal pricing must take account of the implications for power prices and hence access to energy for the poorest in India which is and must remain a fundamental objective of policy. The Economic Survey observes that there is still a long way to go with potential large gains still to be reaped from reform of coal pricing and further reform of petroleum pricing policies. Broadly, the move to substantial carbon taxation combined with India’s ambitious solar power program suggests that India can make substantial contributions to the forthcoming Paris negotiations on climate change. |
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