70th Republic Day

Raju Vernekar
As we are set to celebrate 70 th Republic Day, the presence of South African President Cyril Ramaphosa, as the chief guest at the R Day function at Rajpath, assumes significance because when India is marking the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, it almost coincides with the birth anniversary of South African leader Nelson Mandela, celebrated late last year. Ramaphosa’s visit to India is expected to cement bilateral ties between the two countries.
The year long celebration will start from Republic Day by paying tribute to Mahatma Gandhi. This year there will be around 17 tableaux from States/Union Territories and 6 from various ministries at the R Day Parade, which will be based on the theme ‘Gandhi’. Around 600 children are expected to perform in the parade at Rajpath.
On the occasion, it is equally important to take stock of situation related to different aspects of economy and social conditions prevailing in the country.
GDP
India’s growth rate was 7.36 per cent last year and now it is expected to be 7.79 per cent.
India’s economy grew at an impressive 8.2 per cent in the first quarter of 2018-19 financial year, on the back of a strong core performance and a healthy base. This jump ahead of national elections, would help bolster the government amid a debate over its economic record versus that of its predecessor.
FDI
The UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD) in its ‘Investment Trends Monitor’ report that in South Asia, India attracted $ 22 billion of FDI (foreign direct investment) flows, contributing to the sub region’s 13 per cent rise in FDI in the first half of 2018. With the $ 22 billion FDI, India just managed to make it to the top 10 host economies receiving the most FDI during the period.
Mauritius remained the top source of FDI into India in 2017-18 followed by Singapore, whereas total FDI stood at USD 37.36 billion, a marginal rise over the USD 36.31 billion recorded in the previous fiscal. While FDI from Mauritius totalled USD 13.41 billion, as against USD 13.38 billion in the previous year, inflows from Singapore rose to USD 9.27 billion from USD 6.52 billion. Even as FDI from Netherlands declined marginally to USD 2.67 billion as against USD 3.23 billion in the year-ago period.
Indian Rupee
The value of Indian rupee declined by 12 % between January- September 2018 and it was hovering around Rs.71.59= 1 US dollar for quite some time. It is now around 71.23.
The fall in Indian currency can be attributed to global and domestic cues. Brokerages have become cautious setting lower targets for rupee due to deteriorating conditions for the currency at home and abroad.
When the external value of the domestic currency depreciates and the internal value remains the same, such situation is known as the devaluation of the domestic currency. The basic difference between the devaluation and depreciation is that, the devaluation is done by the Government of the country deliberately, while the depreciation take place because of market forces i.e. demand and supply.
Per capita income
India’s per capita income grew at a slower pace of 8.6 per cent to Rs 1,12,835 during the last fiscal ended March 2018. The per capita income during 2017-18 had attained a level of Rs 1,12,835 compared to the estimates for 2016-17 of Rs 1,03,870, showing a rise of 8.6 per cent, as per the provisional estimates of annual income, released by the Union Ministry of Statistics and Program Implementation (MOSPL).
Jan Dhan
Nearly 20 lakh people have stated to have joined the modified Pradhan Mantri Jan Dhan Yojna (PMJDY), taking the total number of account holders in the flagship financial inclusion programme to Rs. 32.61 crore, as of September 5, 2018.
PMJDY has been re launched, as an open-ended scheme with higher insurance cover and double the overdraft (OD) facility and the Government has decided to continue the scheme beyond the four-year period ended August 14,2018 with an aim to take the formal banking system from every household to every adult. In August-September 2018, the total deposits witnessed an increase of Rs 1,266.43 crore and the balance was Rs 82,490.98 crore.
Under the revamped scheme, accidental insurance cover for new RuPay card holders has been raised from Rs 1 lakh to Rs 2 lakh for new PMJDY accounts opened after August 28.
Also, the existing OD limit of Rs 5,000 has been increased to Rs 10,000. Further, no conditions will be attached for OD up to Rs 2,000. About 53 per cent of PMJDY account holders are women, while 83 per cent of the total accounts are seeded with “Aadhaar”.
Health
India’s public health care sector has been ailing for decades. Every year, around 60 million people become impoverished through paying health-care bills in India. Worse, more than a fifth of people do not seek health care, despite being unwell, because of their inability to pay for it.
Although the infant mortality rate at the national level stands at lowest i.e. 34 per 1,000 live births, the gap between rural (38) and urban (23) mortality rate is high. MMR is defined as the number of maternal deaths per 100,000 live births. The 22% reduction in MMR since 2013 means nearly one thousand fewer women now die of pregnancy-related complications each month in India. Assam (300) has the highest MMR, while Kerala the lowest (61).
Besides, the country faces shortage of doctors and one allopathic government doctor in India, attends to a population of 11,082, which is 10 times more than the WHO recommended a doctor-population ratio of 1:1,000.
Food grains
Despite patchy rainfall in some parts, the Union Agriculture Ministry has set a foodgrain production target of 285.2 million tonnes for 2018-19, a marginal increase from the previous year’s harvest of 284.8 million tonnes. The target for rice, is at 113 million tonnes, and wheat, at 100 million tonnes. However, the targets for pulses, coarse cereals and maize are slightly lower.
The National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India (NAFED) is holding 44 lakh tonnes of pulses and another 57 lakh tonnes including oilseeds.
In view of the crash in prices of commodities, the government has ramped up procurement of pulses and oilseeds in an effort to ensure that more farmers receive the minimum support price (MSP) for the crops even when the market rates fall.
Literacy
The literacy rate has grown to 74 percent, from 12 per cent at the end of British rule in 1947. Tentatively the male literacy rate is 81.3 per cent, while the female literacy rate is at 60.6 per cent. But this level is below the world average literacy rate of 84 per cent. Despite Government programmes, the literacy rate has been increasing “sluggishly”. An old 1990 study had estimated that it would take until 2060 for India to achieve universal literacy at then-current rate of progress.
Kerala with 93.91 per cent literacy rate is at the top, Lakshadweep and Mizoram are at second and third position with 92.28 per cent and 91.58 per cent literacy rate respectively. Bihar with 63.08 per cent literacy rate is the last in terms of literacy rate in India. Whereas Rajasthan has the lowest female literacy rate.
Functional literacy is important since India is a country with more than 280 million illiterate adults and adult education continue to be important for India. The government and non-profit organizations are working to bridge this gap and reach 100 per cent literacy by 2022.
Housing
A scheme “Housing for All by 2022″ was launched as the Pradhan Mantri Aawas Yojana (PMAY) (Urban) in 2015, for those living in urban areas, under which 12 million houses by are projected to be built by 2022. However, only 10 per cent of the houses have been built. Of the 4.65 million houses, 350,000 were completed till March, 2018. The government claimed that it has built an additional 170,000 houses that were pending under the erstwhile Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) scheme.
A parliamentary oversight committee stated that ” Out of a total project cost of Rs 2.04 lakh crore (Rs 2.04 trillion) and total central share of Rs 57,699 crore (Rs 576.99 billion), Rs 26,162 crore (Rs 261.2 billion) were sanctioned for release. The Committee noted that the progress of PMAY has been disappointing.
PMAY (Gramin) was launched in November 2016, with the target of completing one crore houses by March, 2019. The target was split equally between 2017-18 and 2018-19. Sixty lakh (six million) houses were to be completed by June 30, 2018. However the target was not achieved. Right now the challenge before the government is to double the speed of construction in order to complete the remaining 6.6 million houses before March 2019.
Electrification
Prime Minister Narendra Modi, on April 29, 2018, declared that India has electrified 100 percent of its 600,000-plus villages and the last village was Leisang in Manipur in north-eastern India. However soon after the announcement, an internal report by the union rural development ministry revealed that the PM’s claim was incorrect and about 5,000 villages were yet to be electrified. Besides, a separate 2018 survey of 360,000 villages by the central rural development ministry found more than 14,700 villages without electricity for domestic use.
According to official data, only 7.3 % of the total Indian villages, have 100% household connectivity, and about 31 million homes are still in the dark. The government deems a village “electrified” if power cables from the grid reach a transformer in each village and 10% of its households, as well as public places such as schools and health centres, are connected.
Homes without electricity are spread across major states in the country, such as Assam, Bihar, Jharkhand, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan, each having nearly 6 million unconnected households. “Uttar Pradesh, the giant north Indian state, accounts for 14.6 million households without electricity access.
India is expected to become one of the most powerful countries in the time to come. Lets hope that we become super power at least by 2030.
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