Centre discloses key consumption expenditure survey findings after 11 year gap (GS Paper 3, Economy)
Why in news?
- For the first time in about 11 years, the government recently released the broad findings of the All India Household Consumption Expenditure Survey carried out between August 2022 and July 2023.
Background:
- The Household Consumer Expenditure Survey (HCES) is usually conducted by the National Statistical Office (NSO) every five years.
- However, findings of the last survey, conducted in 2017-18 soon after the demonetisation of high-value currency notes and the implementation of the Goods and Services Tax (GST), were never released after the government cited “data quality” issues.
Key Highlights:
- As per the latest survey, the average monthly per capita consumer expenditure (MPCE) in Indian households rose by 33.5% since 2011-12 in urban households to ₹3,510, with rural India’s MPCE seeing a 40.42% increase over the same period to hit ₹2,008.
- The numbers show that the proportion of spending on food has dropped to 46.4% for rural households from 52.9% in 2011-12, while their urban peers spent just 39.2% of their overall monthly outgoes on food compared with 42.6% incurred 11 years earlier.
- This reduction could translate into a lower weightage for food prices in the country’s retail inflation calculations.
- The MPCE numbers do not take into account the imputed values of items received free of cost by individuals through various social welfare programmes such as the PM Garib Kalyan Ann Yojana or State-run schemes, which were calculated separately, while including a few non-food items received through such schemes, including computers, mobile phones, bicycles, and clothes.
Database:
- The average MPCE, at 2011-12 prices, was a tad higher when these items were included while excluding free education and healthcare sops at ₹2,054 for rural households, and ₹3,544 for urban homes.
- The estimates of the MPCE are based on data collected from 2,61,746 households, of which 1,55,014 were in rural areas, spread over all States and Union Territories.
Prehistoric case of Edwards syndrome found for the first time
(GS Paper 3, Science and Technology)
Why in news?
- Researchers have reported chromosomal disorders discovered from prehistoric skeletal remains, dating up to approximately 5,500 years old including six cases of Down syndrome and one case of Edwards syndrome.
- The findings may represent the first time Edwards syndrome has been identified from historic or prehistoric remains.
Trisomy of chromosomes:
- Individuals with chromosomal trisomy carry three copies of a chromosome in their cells, instead of two. Trisomy of chromosomes number 21 or 18 results in Down syndrome and Edwards syndrome, respectively.
- There have only been a few documented cases of Down syndrome in ancient individuals, largely owing to difficulties in identifying genetic disorders without modern techniques for analysing ancient DNA samples.
Database:
- The Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany and others screened almost 10,000 genomes from ancient human skeletal remains from either Ireland, Bulgaria, Greece, Spain or Finland for chromosomal trisomies and identified six cases of Down syndrome and one case of Edwards syndrome.
- These individuals, mostly died either before or shortly after birth. Some of the cases were particularly ancient; two were from as far back as the Bronze Age (about 2,700 BCE) and one from the Neolithic period (about 3,500 BCE).
Burial rituals:
- All individuals appear to have been cared for after death through various rituals indicating recognition of them as part of their communities, and in a few cases were given exceptional burials or elaborate grave goods.
- For example, the individual buried in Early Iron Age Navarra, Spain, was buried with bronze rings, and a Mediterranean seashell, and surrounded by the remains of three sheep and/or goats.
