GS 2 Mains 2020: Important Data and Key Findings of Reports to Quote in Mains Answers

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INDIAN CONSTITUTION AND POLITY

The following are the last five amendments to the Indian Constitution:

• GST Compensation to States:
  • The economic slowdown had reduced both GST and cess collections in FY 2019-20, resulting in a 40% gap (shortfall) between the compensation paid and cess collected.
  • The state’s GST revenue gap in 2020-21 is expected to be about Rs. 3 lakh crore, while cess collections are only projected to reach Rs. 65,000 crore, leaving a shortfall of Rs. 2.35 lakh crore.
  • The Centre distinguished the GST shortfall into two types:
    • Due to GST implementation itself.
    • Caused by the impact of Covid-19.
  • The Centre has been at loggerheads with many states over the compensation issue due to GST shortfall. In August 2020 at the GST Council meeting, the Centre had proposed two options to states to meet the shortfall:
  • A special window could be provided, in consultation with the Reserve Bank of India (RBI), so that the states can get Rs. 97,000 crore at a reasonable rate of interest, the amount can be repaid after five years (of GST implementation) ending 2022 from cess collection.
  • Another option is that this entire gap of Rs. 2.35 lakh crore can be met by the borrowing by the states in consultation with RBI.
  • The borrowing limits of state governments was increased from 3% to 5% of GSDP for the year 2020-21 under Atma Nirbhar Package.

• Vacancies: 
  • The number of vacancies of High Court judges has grown to 470 out of the sanctioned strength of 1079
  • The Allahabad High Court has a maximum of 82 vacancies against the sanctioned strength of 160
  • Punjab and Haryana High Court with 39 (sanctioned strength of 85) and Madras High Court with 37
  • The total sanctioned strength of judicial officers in district and subordinate courts is 21,320. Of these, 16,383 have been filled, leaving 4,937 vacancies.
• Number of Judges per a million population:

  The USA	100
  Canada	75
  The UK	50
  India	19

• The judgment made by the Supreme Court in the All India Judges Assoc. vs Union of India (2001) which directed the central government to increase the number of judges to 50 per a million population by 2006, has not been implemented yet.

• Case Load: 
  • India now has almost 4 crore pending cases spanning the Supreme Court, various high courts, and the numerous district and subordinate courts, according to written replies submitted by the Ministry of Law and Justice in Parliament.
  • As of September 2020, the Supreme Court has 62,054 pending cases.
  • As of September 2020, the pending cases in high courts have risen 51.5 lakh.
  • District and subordinate courts, too, saw a 6.6% increase to 3.4 crore cases as of September 2020.
  • it was estimated in 2016 that judicial delays cost India around 1.5% of its GDP annually.

• Number of Sittings on a decline:
  • During the first session of the 17th Lok Sabha, Parliament sat for 37 days.  In the last 10 years, Parliament met for 67 days per year, on average.  This is short of the amount of time for MPs to be able to get into the depth of matters being discussed in the House.  Since Committees meet throughout the year, they help make up for this lack of time available on the floor of the House.
• Increase in Number of Ordinances: 
  • In the first 30 years of our parliamentary democracy, there was one ordinance promulgated for every 10 Bills introduced in Parliament.
  • In the following 30 years, the ratio was two ordinances for every 10 Bills.
  • In the 16th Lok Sabha (2014-19), the number jumped to 3.5 ordinances for every 10 Bills. In the current Lok Sabha, it is, so far, 3.3 ordinances to every 10 Bills.
  • Since March 24, when the lockdown was imposed, 11 ordinances have been signed by the President.
  • Five of the 11 ordinances are broadly related to the outcome of Covid-19, coupled with two in the health sector. All the other ordinances are unrelated to the pandemic, including the Banking Regulation (Amendment) Ordinance, and the three ordinances related to agriculture.
• Bypassing the Parliamentary Committees: 
  • The first parliamentary session of the 17^th Lok Sabha elections saw the passage of 16 bills till July 30. The bills were debated in the house but none were referred to parliamentary committees.
  • The 16^th Lok Sabha saw 25% of bills referred to parliamentary committees, a sharp drop from 71% during the 15^th Loksabha.

Health:

• Infant Mortality rate in India (2020): 29.848 deaths / 1000 live births
  • 3.48% decline from 2019
• Maternal Mortality Rate(MMR): 
  • MMR for 2017 was 145/1lakh live births, a 3.33%decline from 2016.
• NFHS-5 Report: 
  • population: India's population is stabilizing as per the Fifth National Family Health Survey (NFHS) as the total fertility rate(TFR) has decreased across a majority of the states. Of the 17 states analyzed in the NFHS-5 data, except for Bihar(3.0), Manipur(2.2), and Meghalaya(2.9), all other states have a TFR of 2.1 or less, which implies that most states have attained replacement level fertility.
  • Contraceptive Usage: 
    • All the states surveyed have witnessed an increase in the use of modern contraceptives in family planning. The proportion of women with unmet needs for family planning who want to stop or delay childbearing but are not using any method of contraception has declined in all states, except Meghalaya and Andhra Pradesh.
    • Female sterilization continues to dominate as the modern method of contraceptives in states like Andhra Pradesh (98%), Telangana (93%), Kerala (88%), Karnataka (84%), Bihar (78%), and Maharashtra (77%).
    • The highest prevalence of contraceptive usage in Himachal Pradesh and West Bengal (74%)
  • There is greater use of hygienic methods of protection during the menstrual period by women in a number of states
  • Women's empowerment related indicators:  More women are able to participate in household decision making in 9 states while 30% more women now have bank accounts in Assam, Bihar, Gujarat, and West Bengal.
  • Nutritional status: Data shows a decline in the nutritional status of children under 5 years in a number of states. In Kerala, which is considered to be an advanced and model state for others, the percentage of children under 5 years with stunting has increased to 23.4% as per NFHS 5 against 19.7% in NFHS 4.
    • India accounts for 28% (40.3 million) of the world’s stunted children (low height-for-age) under five years of age.
    • 43% (20.1 million) of the world’s wasted children (low weight-for-height) in 2019.
    • As per the National Family Health Survey (NFHS, 2015-16), the proportion of underweight and stunted children was as high as 35.8% and 38.4% respectively.
    • In several districts of Bihar, Jharkhand, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, and even Gujarat, the proportion of underweight children was more than 40%.
    • Anemia: Among women, it remains a big concern. In all the states, anemia is much higher among women compared to men.
    • Child Marriages: 
      • There has been an increase in child marriages in Tripura (40.1% from 33.1% in 2015-16), Manipur (16.3% from 13.7% in 2015-16), and Assam (31.8% from 30.8% in 2015-16), while states like West Bengal (41.6%) and Bihar (40.8%) still have a high prevalence of child marriages.
    • Teenage Pregnancies: 
    • States like Manipur, Andhra Pradesh, Himachal Pradesh, and Nagaland have also shown an increase in teenage pregnancies. Along with the increase in child marriage, Tripura has also shown an increase in teenage pregnancy from 18.8% in 2015-16 to 21.9%.
    • Out of pocket expenditure: 
      • There has been an increase in average out of pocket expenditure (OOPE) per delivery in public health facilities in some states
      • Compared to NFHS-4, OOPE has increased in several states – Sikkim (109%), Mizoram (63%), Bihar (60%), Assam (42%), and Manipur (40%).
    • Spousal Violence: 
      • While spousal violence has generally declined in most of the states and UTs, it has witnessed an increase in five states, namely Sikkim, Maharashtra, Himachal Pradesh, Assam, and Karnataka. Karnataka witnessed the largest increase in spousal violence, from 20.6% in NFHS 4 to 44.4% in NFHS 5.
      • Sexual violence has increased in five states (Assam, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Meghalaya, and West Bengal).
    • The disparity in Access to Internet:  
    • NFHS-5 depicts a stark disparity in access to the internet by men, in contrast to women in a number of states. In Karnataka and Bihar, for example, twice as many men have access to the internet as compared to women. Sikkim is the only state where access to the internet among men (78.2%) and women (%) is almo76.7st equal.
• National Health Profile,2019:
  • Maternal, Neonatal, Nutritional Diseases, and Other Communicable Diseases show a downward trend. The disease burden due to these dropped from 61 percent to 33 percent between 1990 and 2016.
  • As per the report, the disease burden due to non-communicable diseases such as cardiovascular disease (CVD), diabetes, chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), cancers, mental health disorders, and injuries increased from 30 percent to 55 percent between 1990 and 2016.
  • Life Expectancy Rises To 68.7 Years From 49.7 Years
  • According to the report, over half the children between 6 and 59 months (58.4 per cent) and women in the age group 15-49 are anemic
  • Only One Government Doctor For 10,926 people and overall only one doctor for 1596 people against the WHO’s recommended doctor-population ratio of 1:1000.
  • Only 37% of the population is covered under any health insurance in 2017-18. Of these 78% were covered under public insurance.
• Health care Spending:
  • As per the OECD report, total health care expenditure comparison is as follows:
    

    Country/grouping	% of GDP
    OECD average	8.8
    The USA	16.9
    Germany	11.2
    France	11.2
    Japan	10.9
    India	3.6

  • Among the BRICS countries: Brazil (9.2%), South Africa (8.1%), Russia(5.3%), China(5%)

Education: 

• Current Status of Education in India: Data from Census 2011:
• Literacy rate in India as per Census 2011: 74%. Male: 82.1%; Female: 65.5%
• Kerala tops the rankings, followed by Delhi, Maharashtra, and Tamil Nadu.
• Bihar is the lowest among states, followed by Arunachal Pradesh, Rajasthan, Jharkhand, etc., however, they are improving their position.
• Bihar has a literacy rate of 63.8%, and that of women is 53.3%.
• Literacy rates for both adults as well as youths have increased, still, the absolute number of illiterates in India is as much as India’s population was at the time of independence.
• The gender gap in terms of literacy began to narrow first in 1991 and the pace has accelerated, however, still lags far behind the global female literacy rate of 7% (UNESCO 2015).
• There are large state variations in the gender gap. However, during 2001 – 2011, the male literacy rate increased by 6 percentage points but female literacy increased by nearly 12 percentage points.
• Achievement in female literacy in Bihar is noteworthy: from 33% in 2001 to 53% in 2011.
• Be that as it may, India is still lagging behind the world literacy rate of 86.3%(UNESCO 2015). A major group of states lies in the average rank i.e. just above the national level of 64.8 percent. 
• Highlights of the  New Education Policy Draft:
  • Higher Education:
    • According to the All India Survey on Higher Education, the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education in India has increased from 20.8% in 2011-12 to 25.8% in 2017-18. Lack of access is a major reason behind the low intake of higher education. The policy aims to increase GER to 50% by 2035.
    • Total investment in research and innovation in India has declined from 0.84% of GDP in 2008 to 0.69% in 2014. India also lags behind many nations in the number of researchers, patents, and publications.
  • Vocational Education:
    • Less than 5% of the workforce in the age-group of 19-24 receives vocational education in India, in contrast to 52% in the USA, 75% in Germany, and 96% in South Korea.
    • National Policy on Skills Development and Entrepreneurship (2015) aimed at offering vocational education in 25% of educational institutions. The Draft NEP expands this to include all educational institutions in a phased manner over a period of 10 years.
    • Vocational courses: All school students must receive vocational education in at least one vocation in grades 9 to 12.
    • Higher Education Institutions must offer vocational courses that are integrated into undergraduate education programs.
    • The draft Policy targets to offer vocational education to up to 50% of the total enrolment in higher education institutions by 2025, up from the present level of enrolment of below 10%.
    • National Committee for the Integration of Vocational Education for charting out plans for the above objectives.
  • Adult Education:
    • As per Census 2011, India had a total of 26.5 crore adult non-literate (15 years and above).
    • Establishing an autonomous Central Institute of Adult Education as a constituent unit of NCERT. It will develop a National Curriculum Framework for adult education.
  • Education in Indian Languages:
    • The medium of instruction must be mother tongue until grade 5, and preferably until grade 8.
    • 3 language formula be continued and flexibility in the implementation of the formula should be provided.
  • Financing Education:
    • The Draft Policy reaffirmed the commitment of spending 6% of GDP as public investment in education.
    • The draft Policy seeks to double the public investment in education from the current 10% of total public expenditure to 20% in the next 10 years. 5% will be utilized for higher education, 2% in school education, and 1.4% for early childhood care and education.
• Impact of Covid-19 on education:
  • 5.5% of rural children are not currently enrolled for the 2020 school year, up from 4% in 2018.
  • The proportion of boys enrolled in government schools has risen from 62.8% in 2018 to 66.4% in 2020, while for girls, that number has gone up from 70% to 73% in the corresponding period.
  • Among enrolled children, 61.8% live in families that own at least one smartphone which was merely 36.5% in 2018.
  • About 11% of families bought a new phone after the lockdown, of which 80% were smartphones.
  • WhatsApp is by far the most popular mode of transmitting learning materials to students, with 75% of students receiving input via this app.
  • Availability of learning material: 
    • Overall more than 80% of children said they had textbooks for their current grade.
    • This proportion was higher among students enrolled in government schools (84.1%) than in private ones (72.2%).
    • In Bihar, less than 8% got such materials from their schools, along with 20% in West Bengal, Rajasthan, and Uttar Pradesh.
    • More than 80% of rural children in Himachal Pradesh, Punjab, Kerala, and Gujarat received such input.
  • Learning Activities:
    • Most children (70.2%) did some form of a learning activity through material shared by tutors or family members themselves, with or without regular input.
    • 11% had access to live online classes, and 21% had videos or recorded classes, with much higher levels in private schools.
    • About 60% studied from their textbooks and 20% watched classes broadcast on TV.

Poverty:

• In India, 21.9% of the population lives below the national poverty line in 2011.
• 2/3^rd of the Indian population lives on less than USD 2 per day. Over 30% even live on less than USD 1.25 per day.
• Global Multi DImensional Poverty Index: 
  • India was ranked 62 among 107 countries.
  • Srilanka(25), Bangladesh(58), and China(30) are ranked ahead of India in 2020. 
  • 271 million people moved out of poverty between 2005-06 and 2015-16 in India.
  • The poverty rate in the country has nearly halved, falling from 55% to 28% over the ten-year period (2005-06 to 2015-16). Still, a big part of the population in India is living Below the Poverty Line.

Hunger:

• Global Hunger Index (GHI) :
  • India has been ranked at 94 among 107 countries in the GHI, 2020.
  • With a score of 27.2, India has a level of hunger that is “serious”.
  • India features behind Nepal (73), Pakistan (88), Bangladesh (75), Indonesia (70) among others.
  • Out of the total 107 countries, only 13 countries fare worse than India including countries like Rwanda (97), Nigeria (98), Afghanistan (99), Liberia (102), Mozambique (103), Chad (107) among others.
  • Undernourishment: 14% of India’s population is undernourished (2017-19). It was 16.3% during 2011-13.
  • Child Wasting: 17.3% (2015-19), it was 15.1% in 2010-14.
  • Child Stunting: 34.7%, it has improved significantly, from 54% in 2000 to less than 35% now.
  • Child Mortality: 3.7%, it was 5.2% in 2012

• FAO's The State of Food Security and Nutrition in India:
  • 189.2 million (14% 0f the population) people in India are undernourished.
  • 51.4% of the women of reproductive age are anemic.
  • 34.7% of children aged under 5 years in India are stunted.
  • 20% of the children aged under 5 years in India are wasted.

Vulnerable Sections of the Society:

• Representation in the legislature: 
  • 84 of the 543 Lok Sabha seats are reserved for SCs. In Legislative Assemblies, there are 4,120 seats and 614 of these are reserved for SCs.
  • As far as STs are concerned, a total of 47 seats are reserved for them in Lok Sabha and 554 in various Legislative Assemblies.
  • As per the 2011 census, the population of SCs is over 20.13 crore and STs is over 10 crore
  • Women Representation: 
    • The just-concluded inductions to the Rajya Sabha brought the number of women MPs to 25 of 245, just over 10% of the house. This brings the tally of women in parliament to 103 (there are 78 women in the 17th Lok Sabha), which is a new record.
• Representation in Judiciary:
  • In a country where 48% of the population is female, of 245 judges who have made it to India’s highest court, including the current judges, less than 3.3% have been women. No woman has served as the Chief Justice of India.
    
  • In the country, 25 high courts, no more than 78 of 685 judges, of 12%, were women as of 1 August 2020, according to the department of justice
  • There is greater gender representation at the lowest level of the judiciary. In 17 states, between 2007 and 2017, 36.45% of judges and magistrates were women. The data thus shows a near-uniform trend of the proportion of women judges decreasing as one moves up the tiers of the lower judiciary.
• NCRB Data:
  
   
  • Increase in crimes against members of the Scheduled Castes (SCs) and the Scheduled Tribes (STs): There is an increase of over 7% and 26% in 2019 compared with the 2018 figures.
  • Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest number of crimes against the SCs in 2019, followed by Rajasthan and Bihar.
  • Madhya Pradesh recorded the highest number of cases against STs, followed by Rajasthan, and Odisha.
  • In the number of cases of rape of women belonging to the SCs, Rajasthan topped the list followed by Uttar Pradesh and Madhya Pradesh.
  • The highest number of incidents of rape of tribal women was registered in Madhya Pradesh.
  • Overall crimes against women: A total of 4,05,861 cases of crime against women were registered in 2019 compared to 3,78,236 cases in 2018, showing an increase of 7.3%.

• NITI Aayog's Good Governance Index:
  • Big States:

    1	Tamil Nadu	5.6
    2	Maharashtra	5.4
    3	Karnataka	5.1
    4	Chattisgarh	5.05
    5	Andhra Pradesh	5.05
    6	Gujarat	5.05
    7	Haryana	5
    8	Kerala	4.98
    9	Madhya Pradesh	4.85
    10	West Bengal	4.84

  • North East and the Hill States:
    

    1	Himachal Pradesh	5.22
    2	Uttarakhand	4.87
    3	Tripura	4.5
    4	Mizoram	4.41
    5	Sikkim	4.21
    6	Assam	4.07
    7	Manipur	3.93
    8	Meghalaya	3.81
    9	Nagaland	3.55

  • Union territories:
    

    1	Puducherry	4.69
    2	Chandigarh	4.68
    3	Delhi	4.39
    4	Daman and Diu	4.33
    5	Andaman and Nicobar Islands	4.12

  • Sector Wise top-ranking Big States:
    

    Agriculture and allied	Madhya Pradesh
    Commerce and Industry	Jharkhand
    Human Resource Development	Goa
    Public Health	Kerala
    Public Infrastructure	Tamil Nadu
    Economic Governance	Karnataka
    Social Welfare and development	Chattisgarh
    Judicial and public security	Tamil Nadu
    Environment	West Bengal

• World Governance Indicators:
  • World Bank's assessment of the percentile rank (0 to 100) of India against the six governance indicators can be seen in the following table:
    

                               Rank 0: Lowest-ranked country and Rank 100: Highest-ranked Country

• From the above data, we can see that India's rank has fallen in 2019 when it comes to Voice & Accountability and Rule of Law.
• Though it has improved in the other indicators there is huge scope for improvement in all the indicators of Governance
• Transparency:
  • India slips two places from 78 to 80 on the global corruption perception index of Transparency International.
  • Unfair and opaque political financing, undue influence in decision-making, and lobbying by powerful corporate interest groups has resulted in stagnation or decline in the control of corruption, observed the report.
• RTI:
  • An average of 4,800 RTI applications is filed every day in various government departments every day.  
  • Over 3.02 crore RTI applications were filed with central and state governments since the inception of the transparency law 15 years ago.
  • Primarily, men (90%) from urban areas make use of the RTI.
  • Only 14% of the total RTI applicants across the country are from rural areas
  • Over the last few years, an increase has been witnessed in the number of RTI applications filed. For example, the number of applications in 2015-16 went up by 3.8% compared to 2014-15.
  • The rate of disposal of appeals filed in connection with RTI applications has also gone up over the years. In 2011-12, 23,112 appeals out of 33,922 filed were disposed of. In 2015-16, 1,06,556 appeals out of a total 1,10,034 were disposed of.
  • While RTI activists continue to complain about this aspect, only 15, 578 cases of imposition of penalty by SICs have been reported. The CIC has reported that penalties worth Rs 2.26 crore were imposed on them

• Trade Relations:
  • With the USA (2019-20)
    • Total bilateral trade: USD 92.0 billion 
    • Exports: USD 57.7 billion
    • Imports: USD 34.3  billion
    • Trade Balance: + USD 23.4 billion 
  • With China (2019-20)
    • Total bilateral trade: USD 81.87 billion 
    • Exports: USD 16.61  billion
    • Imports: USD 65.26  billion
    • Trade Balance: -USD 48.65 billion
  • With the EU: (2019-20)
    • Total bilateral trade: USD 77  billion
    • Exports: USD 38  billion
    • Imports: USD 39  billion
    • Trade Balance: USD -1 billion
  • With ASEAN: (2018-19)
    • Total bilateral trade: USD 96.8 billion
    • Exports: USD 37.5  billion
    • Imports: USD 59.3  billion
    • Trade Balance: USD 21.8 billion.
  • With the RCEP countries (2018-19)
    • Total bilateral trade: USD 240.7 billion
    • Exports: USD 67.8 billion
    • Imports: USD 172.9 billion
    • Trade Balance: USD 105.1 billion
• Diaspora:
  • Remittances: 
    • Global remittances are projected to decline sharply by about 20 percent in 2020 due to the economic crisis induced by the COVID-19 pandemic and shutdown.
    • Remittances to India to drop by 9% in 2020 as per the World Bank report. As the COVID-19 pandemic and economic crisis continues, the amount of money migrant workers sends home is projected to decline 14 percent by 2021 compared to the pre-COVID-19 levels in 2019, according to the latest estimates published in the World Bank's Migration and Development Brief.
       
      • Remittances to India: (2017-18)
        

        Source country	Amount (billion USD)
        United Arab Emirates	13.823
        United States	11.715
        Saudi Arabia	11.239
        Kuwait	4.587
        Qatar	4.143
        United Kingdom	3.941
        Oman	3.250
        Nepal	3.016
        Canada	2.877
        Australia	1.944

      • Remittance from India: (2017-18)
        

        Recipient country	Amount (million USD)
        Bangladesh	4033
        Nepal	1021
        Srilanka	520
        China	41
        France	15
        Malaysia	11
        Nigeria	10
        Germany	9
        Myanmar	8
        Kenya	7

  • Numbers: Indian diaspora, at 17.5 million, is the largest in the world, says UN study
    • Indian Diaspora now comprises 6.4% of the total global migrant population
    • The United Arab Emirates was the top destination of Indian migrants followed by the US, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, and Oman