Important data sets that can be helpful for mains helpful for the Mains exam :

  1. 65 per cent of the elderly in India are dependent on others for their financial requirements and undergo financial crisis.

  2. Global Competitiveness Index-39th among 138 countries (Increase by 16 places)

  3. One-third of total maternal deaths in 2015 happened in India.

    1. One quarter of babies worldwide are still delivered in the absence of a skilled birth attendant

  4. Remittances to India to decline by five per cent in 2016 – Can be linked with global economy shrinking

  5. Logistics Performance Index (LPI)- Indian ranked 35 amongst 160 countries.Link it with ease of doing business.

  6. Health Sector of India:-

    1. Total Healthcare Expenditure (THE) of India was Rs. 4.5 lakh crores, which amounts to 4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP)
    2. 69 per cent – comes from Out Of Pocket (OOP) payment by households.
    3. meagre 9.6 per cent   – is spent on preventive care.

  7. Disaster Vulnerabilities:-95% households in India vulnerable to earthquakes.nearly 59% of India’s land area is prone to moderate or severe earthquakes.

  8. National Gas Grid –

    1. At present, the country is having about 15,000 kms of natural gas pipeline infrastructure and an additional 15,000 kms of pipeline is required for completion of National Gas Grid.

  9. Diabetes:-

    1. Today, over 300 million people live with diabetes. A similar number is at high risk. India has often been referred to as the “diabetes capital of the world” but has now ceded this position to China. According to the International Diabetes Federation, over 66 million people in India live with this metabolic disease; an almost equal number has pre-diabetes which is an immediate precursor to diabetes

  10. High Risk Area (HRA) in Indian Ocean and Trade :-

    1. HRA line in the Indian Ocean region was designated at 65 degrees East longitude which was quite far away from India’s West Coast. However, since then India has been consistently taking up in several global fora, such as the International Maritime Organization and the Contact Group on Piracy off the Coast of Somalia (CGPCS), the issue of the restoration of the said HRA geographical coordinate from its existing position of 78 degrees East longitude to 65 degrees East longitude.
    2. India’s overseas seaborne EXIM trade, which is presently about 600 million tonnes per annum, is expected to be quadrupled to about 2,200 million tons by the year 2020. In value terms, the commensurate figures thereof are in the region of US$ 900 billion and US$ 2100 billion respectively. India ranks amongst the top twenty ship owning countries of the world in terms of Gross Tonnage as well as Deadweight.

  11. SalTol Jyothi, the new variety of saltwater-tolerant paddy developed by scientists at the Rice Research Station, Vyttila in Kochi – Give example as genetice engineering.

  12. E-Waste:-

    1. There are 10 States that contribute to 70 per cent of the total e-waste generated in the country, while 65 cities generate more  than 60 per cent of the total e-waste in India – Global dimension of the issue.
    2. Among the 10 largest e-waste generating States, Maharashtra ranks first followed by Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, West Bengal, Delhi, Karnataka, Gujarat, Madhya Pradesh and Punjab.

  13. Human Cost of Weather Related Disasters (1995- 2015) :- UN Report

    1. Over the last twenty years, the overwhelming majority (90%) of disasters have been caused by floods, storms, heatwaves and other weather-related events.
    2. Over this period, weather-related disasters claimed 606,000 lives, an average of some 30,000 per annum, with an additional 4.1 billion people injured, left homeless or in need of emergency assistance.

  14. Blue Revolution Scheme: Integrated Development and Management of Fisheries

    1. Fisheries supports livelihood of almost 1.5 million peoples in our country.
    2. India is the second largest producer (42. 10 lakh tonnes) of fish from aquaculture which contributes about 6.3 per cent to global aquaculture production
    3. India has over 8000 Km. of coastal line and nearly 2 million Sq Km of EEZ and half a million Sq Km. of Continental Shelf. From these marine resources, India has an estimated fisheries potential of 4.11 million tons. Similarly, 3.0 million hectares of reservoirs, 2.5 million hectares of ponds and tanks, 1.25 million hectares of brackish water area, cold water resources of hilly states and all other inland fishery resources offer a production potential of about 15 million tons

  15. Agriculture sector :-

    1. Size-GroupPercentage of number of operational holdings to totalPercentage of area operated to total
      1Marginal (below 1.00 ha.)67.1022.50
      2Small (1.00 – 2.00 ha.)17.9122.08
      3Semi-medium (2.00 – 4.00 ha.)10.0423.63
      4Medium (4.00 – 10.00 ha.)4.2521.20
      5Large (10.00 ha. & above)0.7010.59

      Importance- Majority of our farmers are  Marginal approx . 67% , which makes then vulnerable to climatic variation as they mostly do subsistence agriculture.

  16. India ranks 130th out of 188 on Human Development Index in 2015

    1. With a score of 0.609 on HDI, India stands well below the average score of 0.630 for countries in the medium human development group. But it is marginally above the South Asian countries’ average score of 0.607.
    2. On the gender development index (GDI), with a value of 0.795, India ranks behind Bangladesh (0.917), Namibia, Guatemala, even Tajikistan.

  17. Water:-

    1. About 85 percent of India’s rural domestic water requirements, 50 percent of its urban water requirements and more than 50 percent of its irrigation requirements are being met from ground water resources.
    2. Most of rainfall (about 75%) occurs during a short span of four Monsoon months (June to September) resulting into eight relatively dry months.This leave India with a small span of time for ground water recharge.

  18. Today humanity uses the equivalent of 1.6 planets to provide the resources we use and absorb our waste. This means it now takes the Earth one year and six months to regenerate what we use in a year.

  19. Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana:-

    1. Highlights:-
      1. There will be a uniform premium of only 2% to be paid by farmers for all Kharif crops and 1.5% for all Rabi crops. In case of annual commercial and horticultural crops, the premium to be paid by farmers will be only 5%. The premium rates to be paid by farmers are very low and balance premium will be paid by the Government to provide full insured amount to the farmers against crop loss on account of natural calamities.
      2. There is no upper limit on Government subsidy. Even if balance premium is 90%, it will be borne by the Government.
      3. Earlier, there was a provision of capping the premium rate which resulted in low claims being paid to farmers. This capping was done to limit Government outgo on the premium subsidy. This capping has now been removed and farmers will get claim against full sum insured without any reduction.

  20. Economic Survey 2015-16 states that India has the second highest number of undernourished people at 194.6 million person (FAO, State of Food Insecurity in the World, 2015) which warrants immediate attention. Moreover, with 27 per cent of the population below the poverty line, the rise in prices of food impacts the poor adversely, with a greater proportion of their household incomes being spent on food. Therefore, along with provision of food subsidy, stability in agricultural commodity prices is essential for making poorer sections food secure.

  21. United Nations Industrial Development Organization in its report has placed India at 6th among the world’s top 10 largest manufacturing countries. China tops the list of 10-top industrial producers followed by the US, Japan, Germany and Korea. Indonesia was at the bottom of the list

  22. India’s external debt has remained within manageable limits in 2015-16 as indicated by the increase in foreign exchange reserves to debt ratio to 74.2 per cent, the external debt-GDP ratio of 23.7 per cent and fall in short term debt to 17.2 per cent.

  23. Last year, the Population Division of the UN took note of the extraordinary levels of sterilisations resorted to in India — 65 per cent of all contraceptive methods — and pointed to a potential mismatch between what is being offered and what women would like, which is to delay or space out births.The Supreme Court’s order directing the Centre to ask States to end the oppressive practice of sterilising women in large camps.

  24. In a country, which has 17% of the world’s population but only four per cent of the fresh water reserves, we are consuming three times more water for agriculture than USA, Brazil or China.
  25. Infected with ‘superbugs’ in birth facilities within 72 hours of being born, thousands of Indian babies are dying due to an ‘alarming degree’ of drug resistance, a major study has found. The researchers found that nearly 26 per cent of babies with sepsis died, as multi drug resistance made the ailment untreatable.

  26. Unspoiled lands are disappearing from the face of the Earth at an alarming pace, with about 10 per cent of wilderness regions – an area double the size of Alaska – lost in the past two decades amid unrelenting human development.

  27. Health Sector of India – Snapshot:-

    1. Households continue to be the dominant contributors (73 per cent of CHE) to health finance in India. The bulk of the total money circulating in Indian healthcare – around 69 per cent – comes from Out Of Pocket (OOP) payment by households. OOP is the money which individuals pay out of their own.
    2. High OOP spending is a result of abysmally low government spending on health, constituting just 1.15 per cent of GDP and 30 per cent of CHE – the lowest among the BRICS nations.
    3. It has long been argued that government spending on health should increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP, a figure also envisaged by the Draft National Health Policy 2015.
    4. Around 45 per cent is spent on outpatient care (including both general and special treatment) as compared to 35 per cent in inpatient care.
    5. Overall, the current expenditure on curative care is estimated at Rs 3.4 lakh crores (80.4 per cent) whereas. In contrast, a meagre 9.6 per cent   – is spent on preventive care.
    6. All the government-funded national health programmes such as the National Disease Control Programmes are covered under this category. However, it does not include spending on sanitation or providing access to clean drinking water.