National Sample Survey Office

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) under the Ministry of Statistics & Programme Implementation was established in 1950, with the objective of obtaining comprehensive and continuing information relating to social, economic, demographic, industrial and agricultural statistics through sample surveys on countrywide basis.  It has been, therefore, instrumental in developing a strong database that has helped the Central as well as State Governments in development planning and policy formulations.

The NSSO has four Divisions namely, Survey Design & Research Division (SDRD), Data Processing Division (DPD), Field Operations Division (FOD) and Coordination & Publication Division (CPD) to carry out different responsibilities.  Each of these Divisions, except the CPD, is headed by Additional Director General.  All these four Divisions function under the guidance of Director-General & Chief Executive Officer (DG&CEO).  SDRD located at Kolkata is responsible for planning of the survey, finalization of sample design, schedules, instructions and tabulation programme, report writing, etc.  DPD with its headquarters at Kolkata process the data collected through socio-economic surveys through its six Data Processing Centres across the country.  The Field Operations Division (FOD) is responsible for collection of data from the field on various surveys of the NSSO.  The FOD with head quarters at New Delhi functions through a network of 6 Zonal Offices, 49 Regional Offices and 116 Sub-Regional Offices spread throughout the length and breadth of the country. CPD coordinates the activities of all the Divisions.

The National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) functions under the overall direction of National Statistical Commission (NSC). The National Statistical Commission has the requisite independence and autonomy of decision making in the collection; processing and the publication of NSS data. The autonomy includes the choice of subjects or items on which data have to be collected in a given field of investigation or in a given period, the frequency with which the data on any item are to be collected, the preparatory or pilot work to be undertaken on different subjects, the sample design to be adopted, the tabulation to be prepared, the form in which the data are to be collected and processed and the analysis and publication of results.

Every year NSSO conducts not only large-scale sample surveys in the form of NSS Rounds covering a variety of socio-economic topics, but also other important surveys in the field of Industrial Statistics (Annual Survey of Industries), Agricultural Statistics and Retail Prices.

Employment in Tourism Sector

An Inter-Ministerial Coordination Committee has been constituted under the Chairmanship of the Principal Secretary to the Prime Minister to facilitate resolution of Inter-Ministerial issues involved in the development of tourism in the country.

As per the Tourism Satellite Account for India (2002-03), the contribution of Tourism in the Gross Domestic Product (GDP) and employment of the Country, in 2007-08, has been estimated to be 5.92% and 9.24% respectively. 

In addition to various other initiatives, the Ministry of Tourism has taken the initiative of identifying developing and promoting the nascent/upcoming niche products of the tourism industry such as Cruise, Adventure, Medical & Wellness, Golf, Polo, Meetings Incentives Conferences and Exhi8bitions (MICE) and Film Tourism. This is done in order to overcome the aspect of ‘seasonality’ to promote India as a 365 days destination, attract tourists with specific interests and to ensure repeat visits for the products in which India has comparative advantage. 

Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme

The Credit Guarantee Fund Scheme is being operated by Credit Guarantee Fund Trust for Micro and Small Enterprises (CGTMSE). CGTMSEexamines and approve the proposals received from the Member Lending Institutions and also monitors the implementation of the scheme and undertakes awareness programmes amongst the stakeholders.  

Cargo Traffic at Major Ports Register Growth Despite Slow Down in the Global Economy

Cargo Traffic at India’s 12 major ports during April – February, 2011-12 was 510.8 million tones, which was 1.59 per cent more than the cargo traffic of the same period last year. This was achieved despite the slow down in the global economy. This was stated by Union Minister of Shipping, Shri G.K. Vasan while addressing the Consultative Committee meeting of his Ministry, here today. Shri Vasan said at the overall commodity level during April – February, 2011-12, Coal, Container, Other Cargo, Fertilizers and Fertilizer Raw Material and POL cargo posted growth of 9.4%, 6.7%, 5.9%, 1.9% and 0.2% respectively.

The Shipping Minister informed the Members that during April-February, 2011-12, Ennore Port recorded highest growth in traffic at 47%. Cochin Port stood second at 13.7% followed by VO Chidambarnar Port at Tuticorin in Tamil Nadu at 13.2%. He said, amongst the major Ports, Kandla Port handled the maximum cargo of 75.4 million tones with a share of 14.8% in total cargo handled at major ports followed by Visakhapatnam with a share 12.2% and JNPT with a share of 11.8% which stood second and third respectively.

Shri Vasan informed the meeting that around 95% of India’s foreign trade by volume and 70% by value is transported through sea. He said 12 Major Ports account for 75% of the total cargo by volume handled at Indian Ports. The volume of cargo traffic handled by Ports is mainly shaped by the levels and changes in both global and domestic activities.

Cargo traffic in iron ore (mainly export) in particular was adversely affected during April-February, 2011-12 and dropped by 28.6 per cent. In terms of composition of cargo traffic handled at major ports, the largest commodity group (with share in percent in total cargo handled) was POL (32.0%) followed by Container traffic (21.4%), other cargo (17.8%), Coal (14.0%), Iron ore (11.0%) and Fertilizer & FRM (3.8%). Major ports which recorded negative growth in traffic during April-February 2011-12 were: Mormugao (20.0%), Haldia Dock Complex (HDC) (9.5%), Chennai Port (7.8%), Kolkata Dock System (KDS) (3.8%) and Paradip (1.6%).

The Members of Parliament participating in the discussion while appreciating the efforts of the Ministry of Shipping in the handling of major ports in the country gave various suggestions for improving the working of these ports. There was a suggestion for urgently filling up the Class III and Class IV vacancies in various ports in the country. One Member suggested that various Ports should take adequate pollution control measures. Another Member was of the view that security of Indian shipping personnel in International waters should be of utmost priority. There was a suggestion for proper Disaster Management Policy also. While thanking the Members for their valuable suggestions for the development of the maritime sector, Shri Vasan said that these suggestions would guide the Ministry of Shipping in optimising the cargo mix at our ports.

Size of the Indian Economy

The share of different countries in world GDP based on purchasing power parity (PPP) in 2010 is as under:

Country	Advanced Economies	United States of America	United Kingdom	Germany	Japan	India
Share	52.1%	19.5%	2.9%	4.0%	5.8%	5.5%

Source: World Economic Outlook, database IMF.

         As per news release dated 26^th December, 2011 of Centre for Economics and Business Research Ltd. London, United Kingdom, India will move from being the 9^th largest economy in 2010 to become the 5^th largest economy by 2020.

         The Approach Paper to the Twelfth Five Year Plan (2012-17) proposes a faster, more inclusive and sustainable growth with a target of 9 per cent increase in GDP.  The key requirements for achieving the goal are better performance in agriculture (at least 4 per cent growth), faster creation of jobs in manufacturing, development of appropriate infrastructural facilities, strong efforts at health, education and skill development, improving the implementation of flagship programmes and focus on backward region and vulnerable groups.  In this connection, certain specific measures taken by government inter alia, include enhancing higher level of investment for agriculture sector including irrigation projects, promoting Micro Small & Medium Enterprises (MSME) sector by way of higher allocation of funds, enhancing investment in the infrastructure sector focusing on Public Private Partnership and a number of legislative measures to develop the financial sector etc.  

Employment Guarantee Scheme

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Scheme of Swarna Jayanti Shahari Rozgar Yojana (SJSRY) in implementation from 1997 has been revamped recently in the year 2009. The livelihoods conditions in urban areas are vastly different from those in rural areas.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, in the urban areas what is perhaps more required is skill development of the urban poor as well as facilitation of sustainable self-employment opportunities for them instead of focusing on unskilled wage employment as is the case in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MNREGS). The recently revised guidelines of SJSRY lays considerable focus on skill development of the urban poor to enhance their employability, so as to enable them to take advantage of increasing job opportunities in the urban areas.

Definition of Slum

The Minister for Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation Kumari Selja has said that the Ministry of Housing and Urban Poverty Alleviation set up a Committee to look into various aspects of Slum Statistics / Census and issues regarding conduct of slum census 2011 under the chairmanship of Pranab Sen. The Pranab Sen Committee submitted its report on 30th August, 2010. The Committee has defined Slums as:

“A Slum is a compact settlement of at least 20 households with a collection of poorly built tenements, mostly of temporary nature, crowded together usually with inadequate sanitary and drinking water facilities in unhygienic conditions”.

In a written reply in the Lok Sabha today she said, this definition has been adopted for Rajiv AwasYojana with a special dispensation for North Eastern & special category states, where such settlements of 10 -15 houses would be considered as slums.

She said, the Government of India launched the Jawaharlal Nehru National Urban Renewal Mission (JNNURM) on 3rd December, 2005 to assist cities and towns in taking up housing and infrastructural facilities for the urban poor including slum dwellers in 65 cities in the country under the Basic Services to the Urban Poor (BSUP) Programme for the urban poor in the country. For other cities/towns, the Integrated Housing and Slum Development Programme (IHSDP) was launched with the objective to strive for holistic slum development, with a healthy and enabling environment by providing shelter and basic infrastructure facilities to the slum dwellers. The Mission period is from 2005-2012.

Kumari Selja said, the Ministry is also implementing the Interest Subsidy Scheme for Housing the Urban Poor (ISHUP), which is meant to provide 5% interest subsidy on loans upto Rs.1.0 lakh for construction and purchase of houses for the EWS and LIG beneficiaries of the urban poor including Slum dwellers. This Scheme has now been dovetailed with Rajiv Awas Yojana.

She said, in pursuance of the Government’s vision of creating a Slum-free India, a new scheme ‘Rajiv Awas Yojana’ (RAY) has been launched on 02.06.2011. The Phase I of Rajiv Awas Yojana is for a period of two years from the date of approval of the scheme with an outlay of Rs.5,000 crores while Phase II will be for the remaining period of the twelfth plan period.

The Minister said, the Scheme will provide financial assistance to States that are willing to assign property rights to slum dwellers for provision of decent shelter and basic civic and social services for slum redevelopment, and for creation of affordable housing stock. Fifty percent (50 %) of the cost of provision of basic civic and social infrastructure and amenities and of housing, including rental housing, and transit housing for in-situ redevelopment – in slums would be borne by the Centre, including operation & maintenance of assets created under this scheme. For the North Eastern and Special Category States, the share of the Centre would be 90% including the cost of land acquisition, if required.

She said, the Affordable Housing in Partnership Scheme, which encourages public private partnerships for the creation of affordable housing stock, has been dovetailed into RAY. Under this scheme, central support is provided at the rate of Rs.50,000 per unit of affordable dwelling unit or 25% of the cost of civic infrastructure (external and internal), whichever is lower.

Introduction on Interst Free Banking

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has received references from the India Centre for Islamic Finance for introducing interest-free banking in the country in order to ensure inclusive growth with innovation in accordance with recommendations of the Raghuram Rajan Committee.

RBI has informed that in the current statutory and regulatory framework, it is not legally feasible for banks in India to undertake Islamic banking activities in India or for branches of Indian banks abroad to undertake Islamic banking outside India.

New Base Rate System

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has issued guidelines on Base Rate system replacing the Bench Prime Lending Rate system (BPLR) with effect from July 1, 2010. In terms of these guidelines, banks determine their actual lending rate on loans and advances with reference to the Base Rate. All categories of loans are priced only with reference to the Base Rate, which are announced by banks after seeking approval from their respective Boards. Since the Base Rate will be the minimum rate for all loans, banks are not permitted to resort to any lending below the Base Rate.

The Base Rate is aimed at enhancing transparency in lending rates of banks and enabling better assessment of transmission of monetary policy.

Management of Funds Under NPS

The investment of pension funds of Government employees, who are covered as subscribers to the New Pension System (NPS), was hitherto being made through a pooling arrangement whereby the funds of such employees were credited to a pool account (pending reconciliation of subscribers’ contribution details) from which such funds were allocated to pension fund managers for immediate investment in the best interest of the subscribers. These funds of the Government employees are being managed based on the investment Pattern prescribed by the Government.

The pension funds of the Government employees, who are covered by NPS, are managed by three pension fund managers, namely, SBI Pension Funds (Pvt.) Limited, UTI Retirement Solutions Limited and LIC Pension Fund Limited.

The Pool account is proposed to be discontinued from 1st May, 2012. Thereafter, it would be possible for the individual subscribers to exercise their individual choices regarding investment pattern and the pension fund manager.

NPS is a defined contribution based pension system where the actual returns would be determined by the market based returns.

Scheme for Training of Agriculture Students to Establish Agri-Clinics and Agri-Business Centres

Government has launched a scheme ‘Establishment of Agriclinic and Agri-business Centres’. The Scheme aims to:

(i)           Provide gainful self-employment opportunities to unemployed agricultural graduates, agricultural diploma holders, intermediate in agriculture and biological science graduates with PG in agri-related courses;

(ii)         Support agricultural development; and

(iii)       Supplement efforts of pubic extension by necessarily providing extension services to the farmers as per local needs of farmers.

            Since inception of the scheme, 27,894 candidates have been trained and 9,949 of them have established agri-ventures up to February, 2012.

Salient features of the scheme:

(i)        The National Institute of Agricultural Extension Management (MANAGE) is the Implementing Agency for training component of the Scheme. Two months’ free residential training is imparted to the selected eligible candidates on Agri-Entrepreneurship Development followed by one-year handholding support after completion of training, .through Nodal Training Institutes.

(ii)      The Scheme has a provision of credit support (start up loan) upto ` 20 lakhs for individual projects and  ` 100 lakhs for a group project. 

(iii)    There is a provision of credit linked back-ended composite subsidy on the bank loan availed by trained candidates under the Scheme. The subsidy is 44% in respect of women, SC/ST & all categories of candidates from North-Eastern and Hill States;  and 36% in respect of all other categories

(iv)    National Bank for Agriculture and Rural Development (NABARD) is the Implementing Agency for disbursement of subsidy and monitoring the credit support to agri-clinics and agribusiness centres through the banks.     

Measures to Promote and Develop Co-Operative Sector in the Country

Government has taken various steps to promote and develop the co-operative sector in the country. These include inter-alia, framing of national policy on co-operatives, enactment of Multi-state Co-operative Societies Act, 2002, enactment of the Constitution (Ninety Seventh Amendment) Act, 2011, implementation of recommendation of Prof. Vaidyanathan Committee for revival of short term cooperative credit structure, constitution of high powered committee on co-operatives etc. Besides, the Government is implementing two plan schemes namely the Central Sector Scheme for Cooperative Education & Training through the National Cooperative Union of India (NCUI) and National Council for Cooperative Training (NCCT) and the Central Sector Scheme for assistance to National Cooperative Development Corporation (NCDC) Programmes for development of cooperatives.

The main objectives of the Central Sector Scheme for Cooperative Education & Training are to create awareness about cooperatives amongst the general public, training to the employees working in the cooperative societies and to apprise the members and non-officials of cooperatives about their rights and duties.

The objective of the Restructured Central Sector Scheme for assistance to NCDC programmes for Development of Cooperatives is development of agriculture and rural development through cooperatives. The scheme has three main components namely i) marketing, processing, storage programmes in cooperatives under the least developed States, ii) share capital participation in growers’ / weavers’ cooperative spinning mills and iii) integrated cooperative development projects in selected districts. Under the scheme, the subsidy is provided by the Government and loan component is provided by NCDC from its own sources.

Interest Rates on Post Office-operated Small Savings raised by 0.5 per cent

The Union government on 26 March 2012 raised interest rates on post office-operated small savings like Monthly Income Scheme (MIS) and Public Provident Fund (PPF) by up to 0.5%. Interest rates on time deposits of one and two years were increased by 0.5% each to 8.2% and 8.3% respectively, while rates for popular MIS were increased by 0.3% to 8.5%.

The new rates will be effective from 1 April 2012 and will remain valid during 2012-13.

The government as part of economic liberalisation process had freed the interest rates on banks deposits giving freedom to lenders to fix rates depending upon the asset-liability position. It had however continued to fix rates for small savings schemes.
The measure adopted by the government helped to make the small savings more attractive to investors. The attractiveness of the small savings schemes vis-a-vis fixed deposit schemes operated by banks will thus be maintained.

The revised interest rates are as follows:

• Interest rate on PPF was increased by 0.2% to 8.8%.
• Savings deposit rate remain unchanged at 4%. The interest rate in savings bank accounts - the rates for time deposits of one and two years stand increased by 50 basis points each to 8.2 per cent and 8.3 per cent, respectively.
• Interest rate for three-year time deposits increased from 8% to 8.4%. Similarly, interest rate on five-year time deposit has been raised from 8.3% to and 8.5%.
• Five-year recurring deposits to fetch an interest of 8.4% as against 8% at present
• Rate for senior citizens savings scheme (SCSS) hiked to 9.3% from 9%.
• National Savings Certificates (NSC) having maturity of five and ten years will now attract 8.6% and 8.9%, respectively.

The government's objective was to render the National Small Savings Fund schemes more attractive to investors by way of returns. The measure was also adopted to halt the tendency to switch over to bank deposit schemes.

Shyamala Gopinath Committee

The revision in rates was based on the Shyamala Gopinath Committee's recommendations for Comprehensive Review of National Small Savings Fund.

The panel had advised the government to link interest rates on small savings to market rates. It had also advised the government to notify interest rates afresh at the beginning of every financial year based on the average yields on government securities of similar maturity with a positive rate spread of 25 basis points.

Yield on the benchmark government year bond ranged from 7.8% to 8.97% in the calendar year 2011 leading to upward revision in the interest rates on savings deposits. This is first revision in interest rates after the NSSF was revamped in December 2011 in line with the recommendations.

GENERAL AWARENESS PRACTICE MCQs

1. Recently, 139 greater flamingos were electrocuted at which one of the following Wildlife Sanctuaries?

a. Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary

b. Keoladev Ghana Wildlife Sanctuary

c. Kaziranga Wildlife Sanctuary

d. Manas Wildlife Sanctuary

2. The Government of India has set up a mechanism to access all intelligence data.The name of this mechanism is:

a. Indian Intelligence Grid (INTEL GRID)

b. National Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

c. Indian Spy

d. Third Eye

3. Which one of the following Indian photographers was declared the Grand Prix winner among 60,000 entries in the International Nikon Photo Contest?

a. Raghu Rai

b. Homai Vyarawalla

c. S Paul

d. Debarshi Duttagupta

4. Who is the current Chief Justice of India?

a. KG Balakrishnan

b. YK Sabharwal

c. RC Lohati

d. HS Kapadia

5. The South Asian Football Federation Cup (SAFF) Championship was recently organised in:

a. Chennai

b. Mumbai

c. Panaji

d. New Delhi

6. An enclave has been named as ‘Mahatma Gandhi District’ in which of the following cities of the USA?

a. New York

b. Los angles

c. Chicago

d. Houston

7. Which one of the following personalities was recently appointed as the Chairperson of the Press Council of India (PCI)?

a. Altamas Kabir

b. Raju Ramachandran

c. Markandey Katju

d. Mrs Vibha Bhargava

8. According to the Environmental Performance Index (EPI) - 2010, which of the following countries leads

the world in addressing pollution control and natural resource management challenges?

a. Switzerland

b. Iceland

c. New Zealand

d. Australia

9. Stem cell therapy is best suitable for:

a. Leukemia

b. Parkinson's disease

c. Spinal cord injuries

d. All of the above

10. The term ‘Jasmine Revolution’ is best defined as:

a. A women’s uprising in Yemen

b. A code name given to the ‘SlutWalk movement’ in Canada

c. A pro-democracy demonstration in Tunisia

d. An anti-apartheid drive in South Africa

11. Who is/are the author(s) of the book Steve Jobs?

a. Steve Jobs

b. Walter Isaacson

c. Jay Elliot and William L Simon

d. Christopher Hurt

12. Who among the following has been elected as the new Prime Minister of Japan recently?

a. Taro Aso

b. Yukio Hatoyama

c. Naoto Kan

d. Yoshihiko Noda

13. Who among the following personalities has been declared the winner of the Man Booker Prize - 2011?

a. Tomas Transtromer

b. Jules A Hoffman

c. Julian Barnes

d. Saul Perlmutter

14. Bhagyam Oilfields are located in which one of the following states?

a. Gujarat

b. Maharashtra

c. Rajasthan

d. Andhra Pradesh

15. Koodankulam Nuclear Power Plant is being set up with the help of which of the following countries?

a. France

b. UK

c. USA

d. Russia

16. India’s first double-decker train was flagged off between which of the following stations?

a. Howrah and Dhanbad

b. Mumbai and Pune

c. New Delhi and Bhopal

d. Bengaluru and Mangalore

17. LED, a common display technology, stands for:

a. Laser Emitting Diode

b. Light Emitting Dipole

c. Light Emitting Diode

d. Laser Emitting Display

18. Which of the following social activists has been selected for the prestigious Indira Gandhi Prize for Peace, Disarmament and Development 2011, for her sustained work towards empowering women?

a. Ela Bhatt

b. Kiran Bedi

c. Arundhati Roy

d. Medha Patkar

19. Who among the following has been named as Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of the cricket World Cup 2015 Local Organising Committee?

a. James Strong

b. Dr. Danny Jordaan

c. John Harnden

d. Haroon Lorgat

20. ‘Vivek Express’, which recently became the longest distance travelling train by replacing Himsagar Express, covers what distance?

a. 3725 km

b. 4286 km

c. 5006 km

d. 4056 km

21. An on-board TV service, the first of its kind on Indian Railways, will be provided in which of the following trains?

a. Rajdhani Express

b. Duronto Express

c. Shatabdi Express

d. Deccan Odyssey

22. What is the name of the natural preservative that can prevent food from rotting by destroying the bacteria that make meat, fish, eggs and dairy products decompose?

a. Bisin

b. Disodium ETA

c. BHA

d. BHT

23. What is ‘Memogate’?

a. A secret report of the KGB blaming the USA for disintegration of the former USSR

b. A scandal regarding the deployment of NATO troops in Afghanistan

c. A scandal involving the Pakistani Ambassador to the US seeking help to avert a military takeover in Pakistan

d. A scandal related to with the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) signed between the US Government and

Air France

24. Choose the incorrect option:

(Aircraft company) - (Country)

a. Airbus - France

b. Tupolev - Russia

c. Embraer - USA

d. Bombardier - Canada

25. Who among the following personalities has won the most nominations for the 2012 Grammy Awards?

a. Kanye West

b. Lady Gaga

c. Adele

d. Rihanna

26. Name the first Indian spy satellite that will be operational by 2014 to keep an eye on neighboring

regions?

a. SPY-Sat

b. Eagle

c. AWACS

d. CCI-Sat

27. VR Raghunath is associated with which of the following sports?

a. Football

b. Rowing

c. Hockey

d. Archery

28. According to the recent Global Livability Survey, which city of the world has been judged as the world’s most livable city?

a. Mexico City

b. Melbourne

c. London

d. New Delhi

29. The Bonn conference, which was held recently, involved which of the following countries?

a. Libya

b. Yemen

c. Egypt

d. Afghanistan

30. Which one of the following countries has the largest number of illiterate adults in the world, according to UNESCO’s Education for All Global Monitoring Report-2011?

a. Brazil

b. Indonesia

c. India

d. China

31. Recently, which of the following singers was honoured with the first Hridaynath award for her contribution to Indian music?

a. Asha Bhosle

b. Lata Mangeshkar

c. Abida Parveen

d. Hemlata

32. Who is the only batsman in the cricket to score 7,000 ODI runs with a strike rate of over 100?

a. Adam Gilchrist

b. Shahid Afridi

c. Virender Sehwag

d. Ricardo Powell

33. Sebastian Vettel drives for which of the following teams?

a. McLaren

b. Ferrari

c. Mercedes

d. Red Bull

ANSWERS:

1. (a) Kutch Desert Wildlife Sanctuary

2. (b) Na_ onal Intelligence Grid (NATGRID)

3. (d) Debarshi Du_ agupta

4. (d) HS Kapadia

5. (d) New Delhi

6. (d) Houston

7. (c) Markandey Katju

8. (b) Iceland

9. (d) All of the above

10. (c) A pro-democracy demonstra_ on in Tunisia

11. (b) Walter Isaacson

12. (d) Yoshihiko Noda

13. (c) Julian Barnes

14. (c) Rajasthan

15. (d) Russia

16. (a) Howrah and Dhanbad

17. (c) Light Emi_ ng Diode

18. (a) Ela Bha_

19. (c) John Harnden

20. (b) 4286 km

21. (c) Shatabdi Express

22. (a) Bisin

23. (c) A scandal involving the Pakistani Ambassador to the US seeking help to avert a military takeover in Pakistan

24. (c) Embraer - USA

25. (a) Kanye West

26. (d) CCI-Sat

27. (c) Hockey

28. (b) Melbourne

29. (d) Afghanistan

30. (c) India

31. (b) Lata Mangeshkar

32. (c) Virender Sehwag

33. (d) Red Bull

Global poverty on the decline: World Bank

The rate of poverty, based on the number of people living on less than $1.5 a day, declined across the developing world between 2005 and 2008, according to a World Bank report.

Around 1.29 billion people lived below the defined poverty line in 2008, which was equivalent to 22 per cent of the population of the developing world. By contrast, 1.94 billion belonged to this extreme poverty category in 1981. The updated figures were available from surveys carried out in nearly 130 countries.

However, the nearly 663 million people who moved above the poverty line over the years are still poor by the standards of middle and high-income countries. “This bunching up just above the extreme poverty line is indicative of the vulnerability facing a great many poor people in the world. And at the current rate of progress, around one billion people would still live in extreme poverty in 2015', says Mr Martin Ravallion, Director of World Bank Research Group.

The report notes that recent post-2008 analysis revealed that global poverty overall kept falling, although food, fuel and financial crises over the past four years had sometimes sharp negative impacts on vulnerable populations and slowed down the rate of poverty reduction in some countries.

Preliminary survey-based estimates for 2010 indicated that the $1.25-a-day poverty rate had declined to under half of its 1990 value, which meant that the first Millennium Development Goal of halving the extreme poverty level from 1990 has been achieved before the 2015 deadline.

The $1.25 poverty line is the average for the world's poorest 10-20 countries. A higher $ 2-a-day line revealed less progress than the $ 1.25-a-day cut-off mark. In this case, there was only a modest drop between 1981 and 2008, from 2.59 billion to 2.47 billion.

Poverty Estimates for 2009-10

The Tendulkar Committee for the first time recommended use of implicit prices derived from quantity and value data collected in household consumer expenditure surveys for computing and updating the poverty lines. Tendulkar Committee developed a methodology using implicit prices for estimating state wise poverty lines for the year 2004-05. Using these poverty lines and distribution of monthly per capita consumption expenditure based on mixed reference period (MRP), the Tendulkar Committee estimated poverty ratios for the year 2004-05.In its Report, Tendulkar Committee recommended a methodology for updating 2004-05 poverty lines derived by it.

2.         Accordingly, implicit price indices (Fisher Price Index) have been computed from the 66^th Round NSS (2009-10) data on Household Consumer Expenditure Survey. As per Tendulkar Committee recommendations, the state wise urban poverty lines of 2004-05 are updated for 2009-10 based on price rise during this period using Fisher price indices. The state wise rural-urban price differential in 2009-10 has been applied on state specific urban poverty lines to get state specific rural poverty lines.

3.         The head count ratio (HCR) is obtained using urban and rural poverty lines which are applied on the MPCE distribution of the states. The aggregated BPL population of the states is used to obtain the final all-India HCR and poverty lines in rural and urban areas. Some of the key results are:

o       The all-India HCR has declined by 7.3 percentage points from 37.2% in 2004-05 to 29.8% in 2009-10, with rural poverty declining by 8.0 percentage points from 41.8% to 33.8% and urban poverty declining by 4.8 percentage points from 25.7% to 20.9%.

o       Poverty ratio in Himachal Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Maharashtra, Orissa, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Uttarakhand has declined by about 10 percentage points and more.

o       In Assam, Meghalaya, Manipur, Mizoram and Nagaland, poverty in 2009-10 has increased.

o       Some of the bigger states such as Bihar, Chhattisgarh and Uttar Pradesh have shown only marginal decline in poverty ratio, particularly in rural areas.

·         Poverty ratio for Social Groups:

o       In rural areas, Scheduled Tribes exhibit the highest level of poverty (47.4%), followed by Scheduled Castes (SCs), (42.3%), and Other Backward Castes (OBC), (31.9%), against 33.8% for all classes.

o       In urban areas, SCs have HCR of 34.1% followed by STs (30.4%) and OBC (24.3%) against 20.9% for all classes.

o       In rural Bihar and Chhattisgarh, nearly two-third of SCs and STs are poor, whereas in states such as Manipur, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh the poverty ratio for these groups is more than half.

·         Among religious groups:

o       Sikhs have lowest HCR in rural areas (11.9%) whereas in urban areas, Christians have the lowest proportion (12.9%) of poor.

o       In rural areas, the HCR for Muslims is very high in states such as Assam (53.6%), Uttar Pradesh (44.4%), West Bengal (34.4%) and Gujarat (31.4%).

o       In urban areas poverty ratio at all India level is highest for Muslims (33.9%). Similarly, for urban areas the poverty ratio is high for Muslims in states such as Rajasthan (29.5%), Uttar Pradesh (49.5%), Gujarat (42.4%), Bihar (56.5%) and West Bengal (34.9%).

·         For occupational categories: 

o       Nearly 50% of agricultural labourers and 40% of other labourers are below the poverty line in rural areas, whereas in urban areas, the poverty ratio for casual labourers is 47.1%.

o       As expected, those in regular wage/ salaried employment have the lowest proportion of poor. In the agriculturally prosperous state of Haryana, 55.9% agricultural labourers are poor, whereas in Punjab it is 35.6%.

o       The HCR of casual laborers in urban areas is very high in Bihar (86%), Assam (89%), Orissa (58.8%), Punjab (56.3%), Uttar Pradesh (67.6%) and West Bengal (53.7%).

·         Based on the Education level of head of the household:

o       In rural areas, as expected, households with ‘primary level and lower’ education have the highest poverty ratio, whereas the reverse is true for households with ‘secondary and higher’ education. Nearly two third households with ‘primary level & lower’ education in rural areas of Bihar and Chhattisgarh are poor, whereas it is 46.8% for UP and 47.5% for Orissa.

o       The trend is similar in urban areas.

·         For categories by age and sex of head of the household:

o       In rural areas, it is seen that households headed by minors have poverty ratio of 16.7% and households headed by female and senior citizen have poverty ratio of 29.4% and 30.3% respectively.

o       In urban areas, households headed by minors have poverty ratio of 15.7% and households headed by female and senior citizen have poverty ratio of 22.1% and 20.0% respectively against overall poverty ratio of 20.9%.

4.                  State wise details of poverty lines for 2009-10, poverty ratios for 2009-10 and poverty ratios for 2004-05 are given in Table 1, Table 2 and Table 3 respectively.

Click here to see Tables