PIB Summary- 20th May, 2022 | PIB (Press Information Bureau) Summary - UPSC PDF Download

State of Inequality in India Report

Why in News?
Recently, the ‘State of Inequality in India’ Report was released by the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister (EAC-PM).

About  State of Inequality in India Report

• The report gathers information on inequities in health, education, household factors, and the labour market. Inequity in these areas makes the population more vulnerable and leads to a spiral of multidimensional poverty.
• The research broadens the narrative on inequality by providing a complete analysis that shapes the country’s ecosystem of diverse deprivations, which has a direct impact on the population’s well-being and overall growth.
• The data for the report comes from the Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), and the United Information System for Education Plus.

The report consists of two parts – which looks at five key areas that influence the nature and experience of inequality.

1. Economic Facets
2. Socio-Economic Manifestations

Five Key Areas: 

• Income distribution
• Labour market dynamics
• Health
• Education
• Household characteristics.

Highlights of the Report

• Wealth concentration: Urban areas have a 44.4% wealth concentration in the highest quintile (20%) compared to a meager 7.1% concentration in rural areas.
• Unemployment rate: India’s unemployment rate is 4.8% (2019-20), and the worker population ratio is 46.8%.
• In 2019-20, among different employment categories, the highest percentage was self-employed workers (45.78%), followed by regular salaried workers (33.5%) and casual workers (20.71%).
• Health infrastructure: In the area of health infrastructure, there has been a considerable improvement in increasing the infrastructural capacity with a targeted focus on rural areas.
  (i) From 1,72,608 total health centres in India in 2005, total health centres in 2020 stand at 1,85,505.
• Household facilities: By 2019-20, 95% of schools would have functional toilet facilities on the school premises (95.9% functional boy’s toilets and 96.9% functional girl’s toilets).
  (i) According to the National Family Health Survey-5 (2019-21), 97% of households have electricity access, 70% have improved access to sanitation, and 96% have access to safe drinking water.
• Education: The Gross Enrolment Ratio has also increased between 2018-19 and 2019-20 at the primary, upper primary, secondary and higher secondary.

New Development Bank

Why in news?
Union Minister of Finance & Corporate Affairs and India’s Governor for the New Development Bank (NDB), Smt. Nirmala Sitharaman chaired the 7th Annual Meeting of Board of Governors of NDB through video-conference in New Delhi.

Highlights:

• The meeting was also attended by Governors/Alternate Governors of Brazil, China, Russia, South Africa and the newly joined members Bangladesh and United Arab Emirates (UAE).
• This year’s theme for the Annual Meeting was “NDB: Optimising Development Impact”, which is particularly important and relevant in the current global economic scenario.
• The Finance Minister underscored the importance of multilateralism and the spirit of global cooperation for economic recovery.

About New development bank:

• It is a multilateral development bank jointly founded by the BRICS countries (Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa) at the 6th BRICS Summit in Fortaleza, Brazil in 2014.
• It was formed to support infrastructure and sustainable development efforts in BRICS and other underserved, emerging economies for faster development through innovation and cutting-edge technology.
• It is headquartered at Shanghai, China.
• In 2018, the NDB received observer status in the United Nations General Assembly, establishing a firm basis for active and fruitful cooperation with the UN. 

Objectives:

• Fostering development of member countries.
• Supporting economic growth.
• Promoting competitiveness and facilitating job creation.
• Building a knowledge sharing platform among developing countries.

Tuberculosis

Why in News?
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare addressed the 35th Board meeting of the Stop TB Partnership through video-conference,

About Tuberculosis

• TB remains the world’s deadliest infectious killer.
• Each day, over 4000 people lose their lives to TB and close to 30,000 people fall ill with this preventable and curable disease
• TB is caused by bacteria (Mycobacterium tuberculosis) that most often affect the lungs.
• Transmission: TB is spread from person to person through the air. When people with TB cough, sneeze or spit, they propel the TB germs into the air.
• Symptoms: Cough with sputum and blood at times, chest pains, weakness, weight loss, fever and night sweats.
• Treatment: TB is a treatable and curable disease. It is treated with a standard 6 month course of 4 antimicrobial drugs that are provided with information, supervision and support to the patient by a health worker or trained volunteer.
• Anti-TB medicines have been used for decades and strains that are resistant to 1 or more of the medicines have been documented in every country surveyed.
• Multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is a form of TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to isoniazid and rifampicin, the 2 most powerful, first-line anti-TB drugs. MDR-TB is treatable and curable by using second-line drugs.
• Extensively drug-resistant TB (XDR-TB) is a more serious form of MDR-TB caused by bacteria that do not respond to the most effective second-line anti-TB drugs, often leaving patients without any further treatment options.