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Prelim Bits 26-06-2019

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June 26, 2019

Periodic Labour Force Survey - 2017-18 (PLFS)

  • PLFS aimed to provide employment and unemployment data.
  • It is released by the NSSO under Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation.
  • As per the survey, the Work-force Participation Rate (WPR) is 35% in 2017-18. (39% during 2011-12)
  • Between 2011-12 and 2017-18, the WPR declined for both the sexes in rural and urban areas.
  • The 2017-18 report shows huge variations among the states.
  • Nagaland has the highest unemployment rate among the states at 21.4% followed by Goa and Manipur.
  • Meghalaya the lowest at 1.5%
  • Chhattisgarh and Sikkim are among those with the lowest rates.
  • If Union Territories are included in the comparison,
  1. Nagaland still tops the list
  2. Dadra and Nagar Haveli replaces Meghalaya with a low of 0.6%.
  • Country-wide, PLFS pegs the unemployment rate at 6.1%, with the rate lower among females than males.
  • Among the states, Nagaland and Meghalaya again tops in both the female and the male lists.
  • States showing high female unemployment rate are,
  1. Goa (26.0%)  and Kerala (23.3%)
  2. Their respective male unemployment rates are three times lower (8.1% and 6.2%)
  • States showing high male unemployment rate than female are,
  1. Bihar (7.4% Male, 2.8% Female, overall 7.2%),
  2. Madhya Pradesh (5.3%, Male, 2.1% Female, overall 4.5%),
  3. Rajasthan (6.0% Male, 2.3%  Female, overall 5.0%) and
  4. Uttar Pradesh (6.9% Male, 3.1% Female, overall 6.4%).
  5. Among Union Territories Lakshadweep has a 50.5% female unemployment rate
  6. Andaman & Nicobar has 42.8%.
  • A significant change was observed that, regular wage employment increased significantly with a decline in casual employment.
  • In the regular employment, increase in women’s employment in other services industry.
  • Majority of women (10%) were working as personal service providers, including maids, cooks, governesses, babysitters.
  • A significant proportion of women were also working as primary and secondary teachers in both rural and urban areas.
  •  About 5% of women were also involved in health sector in urban areas mostly working as Anganwadi workers and ASHA
  • Unemployment rate amog Rural-urban divide are,
  1. Rural  area  –  5.8% Male,   3.8% Female,   5.3% overall
  2. Urban area – 5.7% Male,  10.8% Female,  7.8% overall

NITI Aayog Health Index

  • NITI Aayog released the second edition of its ‘State Health Index. titled "Healthy States, Progressive India: Report on Rank of States and UTs".
  • The ranking was done under three categories –
  1. Larger states,
  2. Smaller states and
  3. Union territories (UTs) -- to ensure comparison among similar entities.
  • Kerala tops the list followed by Andhra Pradesh and Maharashtra in Larger states category.
  • The report has also compared health outcomes of Kerala to that of Argentina or Brazil, with  Neo-Natal Mortality rate (NMR) being as low as 6 per 1,000 live births.
  • Tamil Nadu dropped from third position to ninth position, while Punjab dropped from second position to the fifth.
  • Uttar Pradesh is the worst performer along with Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh.
  • Rajasthan, Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir, Uttar Pradesh have shown ‘Annual Incremental Change’.
  • Mizoram and Manipur top performer among Smaller states.
  • Among UTs Dadra & Nagar Haveli, Chandigarh and Daman and Diu have shown significant improvement.
  • Puducherry has shown moderate improvement.
  • Andaman & Nicobar, Lakshadweep and Delhi has shown no improvement among UTs.
  • The report has been prepared in collaboration with the Ministry of health and family welfare and with technical assistance from the World Bank.
  • The report is based on 23 parameters including Mortality rate, sex ratio, TFR.

Bimal Jalan Committee

  • The committee was constituted to suggest appropriate reserves that RBI should maintain and dividends it should pay to the government.
  • Its mandate was to review global best practices followed by the central banks in making assessment and provisions.
  • Most of the committee members favours reducing the RBI’s excess reserves in a phased manner, without any substantial transfer to the government.
  • The majority of the members also favors the past reserves of the RBI, especially unrealized gains, in gold and currency revaluation accounts, should not be touched, while future transfers should be guided by the new policy.
  • Government nominee on the Committee has expressed differences on key recommendations of the panel.
  • As per Section 47 of the RBI Act, profits of the RBI are to be transferred to the government, after making various contingency provisions.
  • The Finance Ministry had internally estimated RBI’s excess reserves at Rs 3.6 lakh crore.
  • For the year ending June 2018, RBI had total reserves of Rs 9.59 lakh crore, comprising mainly currency and gold revaluation account (Rs 6.91 lakh crore) and contingency fund (Rs 2.32 lakh crore).
  • If the committee recommends a significant chunk of past excess reserves that can be transferred to the government, it will put the Centre into a much better fiscal situation.
  • It will also enable government to deploy the money for capitalizing the public sector banks and to support economic growth.
  • At the same time, RBI needs adequate capital reserves for monetary policy operations, currency fluctuations, possible fall in the value of bonds and other risks from an increase in its expenditure.
  • The panel is supposed to submit its report later this week.

PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme

  • PM Kisan was announced in 2019 interim budget guaranteeing direct income support for farmers.
  • This is to help them meet farm input and other costs during the crop season.
  • Earlier, the vulnerable landholding farmer families, having cultivable land upto 2 hectares, to be provided direct income support at the rate of Rs. 6,000 per year.
  • Now the eligibility for PM Kisan Samman Nidhi Scheme is extended to All landholder farmers’ families in the country except,
  1. All Institutional Land holders.
  2. Farmer families in which one or more of its members belong to following categories,
  • Former and present holders of constitutional post.
  • Former and present Ministers, M.Ps,  MLAs
  • Former and present Mayors of Corporations, Chairpersons of District Panchayats.
  • All serving or retired officers and employees of Central/ State Government Ministries and its field units Central or State PSEs and Attached offices under Government as well as regular employees of the Local Bodies.
  • All pensioners whose monthly pension is Rs.10,000/-or more
  • All Persons who paid Income Tax in last assessment year.
  • Professionals like Doctors, Engineers, Lawyers, CAs etc.
  • The Ministry for Agriculture & Farmers Welfare has uploaded data of farmers on the PM-Kisan Portal to enable it to release the benefits to the beneficiary farmers.

 

Source: PIB, The Indian Express, Business Line

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