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The difference in average monthly per capita consumption expenditure (MPCE) between rural and urban households has narrowed to 71.2 per cent in 2022-23 compared with 83.9 per cent in 2011-12, according to the latest Household Consumption Expenditure Survey (HCES) 2022-23 released Saturday by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
This suggests rural consumption spending has risen more than urban consumption spending during the 11 year period.The survey report does reveal that rural average monthly consumption spending per person increased to Rs 3,773 per month in 2022-23 from Rs 1,430 per person in 2011-12, a jump of 164 per cent.
This is higher than the 146 per cent increase in urban average monthly consumption expenditure per person to Rs 6,459 in 2022-23 compared with Rs 2,630 per person in 2011-12.
While the Household Consumption Expenditure surveys are held in a gap of five years, the government had not released the survey results of its 75th round for July 2017-June 2018 stating there was a significant variation in the levels in consumption pattern as well as in the direction of change. The survey that was leaked had shown a decline in consumption expenditure.
PM launches world’s largest agri storage plan: Rs 1.25 lakh cr outlay over 5 years (Page no. 1)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
At a time when farmers in Punjab are demanding a legal guarantee of Minimum Support Price for 23 crops and trying to march towards Delhi, Prime Minister Narendra Modi Saturday announced a plan to set up the “world’s largest grain storage plan in the cooperative sector”.
Inaugurating a pilot project being undertaken in 11 Primary Agricultural Credit Societies (PACS) in 11 states under the largest grain storage plan, Modi said farmers incurred losses due to lack of storage infrastructure.
Earlier governments never focused on storage of agricultural produce. Our plan is to set up a storage infrastructure of 700 lakh metric tons over the next five years at a cost of Rs 1.25 lakh crore.
This will enable farmers to store their produce and sell it at the right time according to their own needs. This will also help them to avail loans from banks.”
Modi also laid the foundation stone for additional 500 PACS for construction of godowns and other agri infrastructure. Further, he inaugurated a project for computersation in 18,000 PACS across the country, aligning farming with cutting edge technology and shifting to fully digital payments.
The launch of multiple initiatives for the cooperative sector at the Bharat Mandapam in New Delhi is intended to address one of the key farmer concerns of storage, and comes days ahead of the expected announcement of dates for the Lok Sabha elections and the kicking in of the Moral Code of Conduct.
Govt & Politics
India eyeing annual defence production of 3 lakh crore in FY 29 (Page no. 6)
(GS Paper 3, Defence)
By the financial year 2028-29, India’s annual defence production is expected to touch a whopping `3 lakh crore and export of military hardware is poised to reach Rs 50,000 crore, announcing that high-end systems like aero-engines and gas turbines will be produced within the country.
In an address at a defence conclave, Singh, delving into structural defence reforms, said the three services used to work in silos earlier but now they are ready with better coordination to deal with any challenge jointly.
Earlier, the three services used to work in silos. We focused on their integration which was an out-of-the-box step and the need of the hour.
It was a little difficult in the beginning; but today our military is ready with better coordination to deal with every challenge together.
Singh said the government has been focusing on jointness among the Indian Army, the Navy and the Indian Air Force that would ensure enhanced coordination in times of “crisis”.
He said India’s annual defence production is expected to clock `3 lakh crore and defence exports `50,000 crore by 2028-29. According to latest data, the defence production has crossed `1 lakh crore mark while the defence exports in 2023-24 has been estimated at around `16,000 crore.
New crime laws to come into effect from July 1 (Page no. 7)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
The Centre has issued three gazette notifications, informing that the three new criminal laws — Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, Bharatiya Nagarik Suraksha Sanhita and Bharatiya Sakshya Act — will be effective July 1. But it has put on hold the provision related to hit-and-run cases under the Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita.
The new laws were passed by Parliament in the Winter Session. President Droupadi Murmu gave her assent to the three laws on December 25.
Last month, Prime Minister Narendra Modi directed that new criminal laws should be rolled out in a targeted manner in all Union Territories (UTs).
The gazette notification issued on Friday reads, “In exercise of the powers conferred by sub-section (2) of section 1 of the Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita, 2023 (45 of 2023), the Central Government hereby appoints July 1, 2024, as the date on which the provisions of the said Sanhita, except the provision of sub-section (2) of section 106, shall come into force.
In January, transporters’ associations across the country staged protests against certain provisions under the new code, as per which any driver who causes the death of a person by rash and negligent driving and flees from the spot will be jailed for up to 10 years and/or fined.
The Centre had assured all transporters that a decision on enforcing the stringent provisions in such cases under Bharatiya Nyay Sanhita will be taken only after consultation with the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC).
Express Network
Invite legal experts to work on Sixth schedule, statehood demands: MHA (Page no. 9)
(GS Paper 2, Polity and Constitution)
The Ministry of Home Affairs suggested inviting legal experts to discuss the “modalities for implementation” of the Sixth Schedule and statehood for Ladakh, two of the four demands raised by the sub-committee representing Ladakh Apex Body (LAB) and Kargil Democratic Alliance (KDA), following the third round of talks in the national capital on Saturday.
On the demands for a Service Selection Board and reservation in divisional and district-cadre jobs in Ladakh, “a notification may be expected soon”, said Cheering Dorjey Lakrook, a member of the sub-committee.
Representatives from both the socio-political groups previously met the MHA officials as part of a high-powered committee on December 4 last year and on February 19 this year.
LAB and KDA have been spearheading the movement in Ladakh with four main demands — statehood for Ladakh, safeguards under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution, job reservation for the youths of Ladakh and creation of separate parliamentary constituencies for the two parts of the region.
During Saturday’s meeting, inclusion of Ladakh in DANICS was opposed and reservation in jobs for Ladakhis was proposed. “For non-gazetted posts, there is some provision but we have sought reservation in gazetted posts too,” said KDA member Sajjad Kargili.
India’s longest cable stayed bridge opens today (Page no. 10)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
Prime Minister Narendra Modi will on Sunday inaugurate Sudarshan Setu, India’s longest cable-stayed bridge, in the Gulf of Kutch. Also known as Signature Bridge, it will link mainland Gujarat with Bet Dwarka island off Okha coast in Devbhumi Dwarka.
Signature Bridge is technically a sea-link, a first for Gujarat. Its total length is 4,772 metres, including a 900-m-long cable-stayed section. The four-lane bridge, constructed at a cost of Rs 978 crore, was funded by the Union government.
After the Union Territory of Diu, located at Una coast in Gir Somnath, Bet Dwarka is the second largest island off Gujarat coast.
At present, the only means of transport between Bet Dwraka and mainland Gujarat is the ferry boat service running from Dwarka to Okha, the nearest point of mainland. The Signature Bridge will provide all-weather road-connectivity to the island.
The bridge is supported by 32 piers, which support seven cable-stayed spans of 900-m length. Besides its 27-m-wide carriageway, the bridge has walkways on either side, its pillars decorated with verses of Bhagavad Gita and images of Lord Krishna. Solar panels form the roof of these walkways.
Opinion
Dissidence strengthen democracy (Page no. 11)
(GS Paper 2, Governance)
My mother died last week. Without being able to say goodbye to a grandson she helped me bring up. He was a small boy when I was off covering conflicts and political turmoil in distant places, and it was in her house that I would leave my son. It would have been impossible to manage without her.
In recent months, when she was very sick, I did my best to try and get my son an ordinary tourist visa to visit her and failed.
One high official was honest enough to admit that he had to agree to never say another word against the government and there might be a chance.
The rest never got back to me. My mother spent the last five years of her life wondering when she would see him again. Towards the end, I could not mention his name without her bursting into tears.
India was my son’s home until an act of extraordinary spite caused him to be exiled. When he wrote the article in Time magazine that caused this to happen, politicians at the highest levels of the BJP and its army of trolls on social media went out of their way to say that he was persona non grata not because of that article, but because he was anti-India.
One very vocal BJP spokesman went to the extent of tweeting that he was a ‘trained ISI agent’. The Home Ministry has the capability to discover that this is rubbish, but chooses not to.
Economy
Under employment is a problem for India says Arvind Panagariya (Page no. 12)
(GS Paper 3, Economy)
Pitching for labour reforms, the chairman of the 16th Finance Commission and former NITI Aayog Chairman Arvind Panagariya on Saturday said that "unemployment," is not a problem for India but "under-employment" is.
Speaking at a session 'The Economic Whisper: how to fuel growth with jobs' at the concluding day of the two-day ABP Network's 'Ideas of India Summit 3.0' here, he also sounded optimistic that the jobs problem in the country will be solved over the next 10 years.
Unemployment is really not India's problem in my view. Our problem is underemployment, so productivity is low. So the job that can be done by one person often gets done by two people or maybe three people. And that is where I think, the real challenge of jobs is creating well-paid high-productivity jobs.
Stating that in the economy's jargon, India is a labour-abundant and capital-scarce country, he said, "What we have done is to put much of the capital in very selective sectors which are in any case very capital intensive".
We got the situation where much of the capital is working with very few workers. And then you have a host of workers in agriculture in micro and small enterprises where the capital is hardly present.
So then you got a lot of workers working with very little capital. And when that is the case, it translates into low productivity.