23 July 2013 Current Affairs
Indian-origin Peer Ajay Kakkar Appointed To Lords Post
On 23 July Indian-origin peer Ajay Kakkar has been made the chairman of the influential House of Lords Appointments Commission, an advisory body which selects new independent members of UK’s House of Lords.Lord Kakkar is Professor of Surgery at University College London (UCL) and Consultant Surgeon University College London Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust since 2011.The commission’s role is to select new independent members of the House of Lords and to vet party-political nominations put forward by the political parties.
Poverty In India Drops To 21.9 percent In 2011-12
On 23 July the Planning Commission of India released its report on the Poverty Estimates for 2011-12. The report was based on the Large Sample Surveys on Household Consumer Expenditure conducted by the National Sample Survey Office (NSSO) of the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation.However, since 2009-10 was not a normal year because of a severe drought, the NSSO repeated the large scale survey in 2011-12 (NSS 68thround). The summary results of this survey were released in June 2013.Since the data from the NSS 68th round (2011-12) of Household Consumer Expenditure Survey is now available .The Planning Commission has updated the poverty estimates for the year 2011-12 as per the methodology recommended by Tendulkar Committee.The commission present ,released estimates of state wise poverty lines for rural and urban areas for 2011-12 .
Poverty Estimates For 2011-12 :-
* Poverty ratio in the country has declined to 21.9 per cent in 2011-12 from 37.2 per cent in 2004-05 on account of increase in per capita consumption.
* According to the Planning Commission, in 2011-12 for rural areas, the national poverty line by using the Tendulkar methodology is estimated at Rs. 816 per capita per month in villages and Rs. 1,000 per capita per month in cities.This would mean that the persons whose consumption of goods and services exceed Rs. 33.33 in cities and Rs. 27.20 per capita per day in villages are not poor.
* For a family of five, the all India poverty line in terms of consumption expenditure would amount of Rs. 4,080 per month in rural areas and Rs. 5,000 per month in urban areas. The poverty line, however, will vary from state to state.
* The percentage of persons below poverty line in 2004-05 was 41.8 per cent in rural areas, 25.7 per cent in cities and 37.2 per cent in the country as a whole.In actual terms, there were 26.93 crore people below poverty line in 2011-12 as compared to 40.71 crore in 2004-05.
* State-wise, the Commission said the highest poverty rate of 39.93% was recorded in Chhattisgarh (2011-12)followed by Jharkhand (36.96 per cent), Manipur (36.89 per cent), Arunachal Pradesh (34.67 per cent) and Bihar (33.47 per cent).
* Among the union territories, the Dadra and Nagar Haveli was the highest, with 39.31 per cent people living below poverty line followed by Chandigarh at 21.81 per cent.
* Lowest poverty rate of 5.09% was recorded in Goa (2011-12) followed by Kerala (7.05 per cent), Himachal Pradesh (8.06 per cent), Sikkim (8.19 per cent), Punjab (8.26 per cent) and Andhra Pradesh (9.20 per cent).
Latest Statistics Data On Tourism In India Released By Ministry Of Tourism
On 23 July According to the latest statistics on tourism in India released by Ministry of Tourism during the year 2012.
* Andhra Pradesh has become the top tourist destination in the country recording 206.8 million domestic tourists last year.
* Tamil Nadu and Uttar Pradesh stood at second and third positions respectively with 184.1 million and 168.4 million domestic tourists.
* According to the data, the top ten states in terms of number of domestic tourist visits (in millions) during 2012 are: Andhra Pradesh (206.8), Tamil Nadu (184.1), Uttar Pradesh (168.4), Karnataka (94.1), Maharashtra (66.3), Madhya Pradesh (53.2), Rajasthan (28.6), Uttarakhand (26.8), Gujarat (24.4) and West Bengal (22.7).The contribution of these States was about 84.5% to the total number of domestic tourist visits during 2012.
* The number of foreign tourists visiting the country too registered a growth of 6.33 per cent during the same year.
* Maharashtra (5.1 lakh) topped the list in number of foreign tourist visits, followed by Tamil Nadu (3.6 lakhs) and New Delhi(2.3 lakhs).
* The top ten most sought after states by foreign tourists (in millions) during 2012 were :- Maharashtra (5.1), Tamil Nadu (3.6), Delhi (2.3), Uttar Pradesh (2.0), Rajasthan (1.5), West Bengal (1.2), Bihar (1.1), Kerala (0.8), Karnataka (0.6) and Himachal Pradesh (0.5).