NITI Aayog's SDG report flags huge worries about hunger, poverty in India - Pragnya IAS Academy - News Analysis.

NITI Aayog's SDG report flags huge worries about hunger, poverty in India.

Poor show by 25 states on food security and malnutrition Sustainable Development Index 2019

India’s standing vis-a-vis United Nations-mandated goals has improved marginally, but the country has slipped in key areas, related to food security, livelihood and standard of living.
The country’s overall score of 60, according to the Sustainable Development Goals Index 2019-20 released by NITI Aayog, was three points above its 2018 standing. This was primarily due to better performance related to water and sanitation; affordable and clean energy as well as industry, innovation and infrastructure.
But the country was worse off in several goals (SDGs):
SDG 1 – Alleviating poverty
SDG 2 – Ending hunger
SDG 8 – Decent work and economic growth
SDG 10 – Reducing inequality
SDG 15 – Preserving life on land
SDG 16 – Upholding peace, justice and strong institutions
A hungry nation
India’s worst performance was towards SDG 2: Ending hunger by 2030, where its score has fallen to 38 in the current year from 48 in the previous year.
This was also highlighted by Global Hunger Index 2019 released in October 2019, which places India 102nd among 117 qualifying countries.
As many as 25 states and Union territories failed to address “hunger and malnutrition”, according to the NITI Ayog index. Jharkhand led from the bottom, scoring 22 off 100, followed by Madhya Pradesh (24) and Bihar (26).

Gujarat, Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Odisha, Rajasthan, Meghalaya and Uttar Pradesh were among the states that lagged.
Top performer Goa scored 76, a dip of four points. Scores also dipped for five of the top 10 states: Manipur, Punjab, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu and Jammu and Kashmir.
The Centre-backed think tank considered three new indictors:
• Children (6-59 months) who are anaemic
• Children (0-4 years) who are underweight
• Gross value added in agriculture per worker
Those apart, there were four existing indicators:
• Rural households under public distribution system
• Stunted children (under five)
• Pregnant women (15-49 years) who are anaemic
• Rice, wheat and coarse cereals produced annually per unit area
Climate challenge
The index recognised climate change as a challenge to ensuring food security in India as it turned food production highly vulnerable.
It stressed on climate-smart sustainable agriculture and called for widening climate-adaptive farming practices, new technology and plans that involve land owned by small farmers, who constitute more than 82 per cent of India’s farmers.
Poverty, gender parity
India slipped four points to 50 vis-a-vis ending poverty, with 22 states unable to reduce poverty. The situation was dismal for gender parity too.
Goa ranked last there, with its score plummeting 31 points to 19.
The index, in its second year, ranked the states and UTs based on 100 indicators for 54 targets across 16 goals.


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NITI Aayog's SDG report flags huge worries about hunger, poverty in India.

INDEPENDENT DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE MUST BE SET UP: NITI AAYOG - Pragnya IAS Academy -News Analysis

INDEPENDENT DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE MUST BE SET UP: NITI AAYOG

Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman Rajiv Kumar on Sunday made a strong case for setting up an independent debt management office, saying better servicing of loans could lead to substantial reduction in India's interest payment. At present, the government debt, including market borrowing, is managed by the Reserve Bank of India.
“Now the time has come to seriously consider better management of India's debt servicing obligations. Interest payment is such a large part of the revenue expenditure that better management of debt servicing could substantially reduce interest payment,” said Kumar.
Noting that India's external debt is only 18 per cent of total GDP, the Niti Aayog Vice-Chairman said that when the RBI manages India's debt then there is a conflict of interest.
“Because if you let more external people come and compete in government debt market then you get more foreign exchange, therefore exchange rate management gets problematic. So, therefore debt market remains confined to few domestic players. I think therefore time has come for this step to be taken in right earnest,” Kumar insisted.
Talking about India's economic growth, he said this year (2018-19), the economy will grow at 7.5 per cent plus. “By 2019-20, India will start growing at 8 per cent,” Kumar said.
India's total debt is estimated at Rs 66.68 lakh crore at the end of March 2018, which is likely to go up to Rs 72.51 lakh crore by March 2019, according to the Budget document. The interest payment on the public debt is estimated to rise from Rs 5.3 lakh crore in 2017-18 to Rs 5.75 lakh in 2018-19.
In his February 2015 Budget speech, Finance Minister Arun Jaitley had proposed to set up a Public Debt Management Agency (PDMA) within the Finance Ministry. The idea behind setting up of PDMA was to resolve issues relating to conflict of interest as the RBI decides on the key interest rates as well as undertakes buying and selling of government bonds.
Kumar also pointed out that presently tenants cultivators are not able to avail crop loans and other benefits like minimum support prices (MSP).
“In the next three months, Niti Aayog in consultation with state governments will evolve a suitable mechanism to enable access of tenants cultivators to bank loans without compromising the rights of the land owners,” he said.


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INDEPENDENT DEBT MANAGEMENT OFFICE MUST BE SET UP: NITI AAYOG