Committees, indexes and Surveys

A Committee of Experts under the Chairmanship of Shri. Kris Gopalakrishnan has been constituted by Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology (MeitY) in to deliberate on Non-Personal Data Governance Framework. The following are the terms of reference of the said committee:
-To study various issues relating to Non-Personal Data.
-To make specific suggestions for consideration of the Central Government on the regulation of Non-Personal Data.
The committee has recently drafted its report and sought public comments.
-The report attempts to give definition of Non-personal Data and the concept of community data and the appropriate rights and privileges over this data.
-The report recommends the establishment of a Non-Personal Data Regulatory Authority with an enabling role as well as enforcing role.

The China Study Group (CSG) is an informal group constituted in 1997, comprising the Cabinet Secretary, secretaries of Defence and Home ministries, the Army chief, Director of Intelligence Bureau among others.
[A report on ThePrint has different origin time for group: The CSG was set up in November 1975 on the instructions of then-PM Indira Gandhi, comprising the secretaries of external affairs, defence, and home.]
The National Security Advisor convenes its meeting from time to time. The CSG usually monitors the India-China border, assess its management, and help in preparations for negotiations with China on the border question.

All of the above are the functions of the Central Water Commission.
Central Water Commission is a premier Technical Organization of India in the field of Water Resources and is presently functioning as an attached office of the Ministry of Jal Shakti. Its functions include:
-To carry out techno-economic appraisal of irrigation, flood control and multipurpose projects
-To collect, compile, analyse and publish the hydrological and hydro-meteorological data relating to major rivers
-To provide flood forecasting services to all major flood prone inter-state river basins of India
-Monitoring of selected major and medium irrigation projects
-To initiate studies on socio-agroeconomic and ecological aspects of irrigation projects
-To conduct studies on dam safety aspects for the existing dams and standardize related instrumentation for dam safety measures.
Google in association with the Central Water Commission (CWC) have started a flood forecasting initiative. Any user in the affected region having an Android smartphone with location services enabled will receive these alerts.

Statement 1 is correct. National Policy on Education (NPE, 1986) and the Programme of Action (PoA, 1992) spelt out strategic plans for the policies, advocated the establishment of an independent National accreditation agency for Higher Education Institutions (HEIs).
Consequently, the National Assessment and Accreditation Council (NAAC) was established in 1994 as an autonomous institution of the University Grants Commission (UGC).
Statement 2 is correct. NAAC conducts assessment and accreditation of Higher Educational Institutions (HEI) such as colleges, universities or other recognised institutions to derive an understanding of the ‘Quality Status’ of the institution.
NAAC evaluates the institutions for its conformance to the standards of quality in terms of its performance related to the educational processes and outcomes, curriculum coverage, teaching-learning processes, faculty, research, infrastructure, learning resources, organisation, governance, financial wellbeing and student services.

The Liberhan Ayodhya Commission of Inquiry was a long-running inquiry commissioned by the Government of India to investigate the destruction of the Ram Janma Bhoomi-Babri Masjid structure on 6 December 1992.
Headed by Justice M. S. Liberhan, set up on December 16, 1992, the Commission was initially asked to give a report in three months. Extensions were given 48 times, and after a delay of about 17 years, the one-man commission submitted the report in 2009.

Both statements are correct.
The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO), NITI Aayog has undertaken Data Governance Quality Index (DGQI) exercise to assess different Ministries /Departments’ performance on the implementation of Central Sector Schemes (CS) and Centrally Sponsored Schemes (CSS). It is a self-assessment-based review of data preparedness levels across Ministries / Departments to produce a DGQI score card.
Accordingly, a survey was initiated with the objective of assessing data preparedness of Ministries / Departments on a standardized framework to drive healthy competition among them and promote cooperative peer learning from best practices.
# The Development Monitoring and Evaluation Office (DMEO) was constituted in September 2015 by merging the erstwhile Program Evaluation Office (PEO) and the Independent Evaluation Office (IEO). It is an attached office under NITI Aayog, aimed at fulfilling the organization’s monitoring and evaluation (M&E) mandate and building the M&E ecosystem in India.

Statement 1 is incorrect. National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) is a statutory body under the Commissions for Protection of Child Rights (CPCR) Act, 2005 under the administrative control of the Ministry of Women & Child Development.
The Commission’s Mandate is to ensure that all Laws, Policies, Programmes, and Administrative Mechanisms are in consonance with the Child Rights perspective as enshrined in the Constitution of India and also the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child. The Child is defined as a person in the 0 to 18 years age group.
Statement 2 is correct. The commission may inquire into complaints and take suo-motu notice of matters relating to-
– Deprivation and violation of child rights;
– Non-implementation of laws providing for protection and development of children;
– Non-compliance of policy decisions, guidelines or instructions aimed at mitigating hardships to and ensuring welfare of the children and to provide relief to such children.
# NCPCR also monitors the implementation of Protection of Children from Sexual Offences (POCSO) Act, 2012.

Justice Verma Committee was constituted to recommend amendments to the Criminal Law so as to provide for quicker trial and enhanced punishment for criminals accused of committing sexual assault against women. The Committee submitted its report in January 2013.
Statement 1 is correct. The Committee rejected the proposal for chemical castration as it fails to treat the social foundations of rape.
Statement 2 is correct. The Committee recommended the amendment of the Representation of People Act, 1951. The Committee was of the opinion that filing of charge sheet and cognizance by the Court was sufficient for disqualification of a candidate under the Act. It further recommended that candidates should be disqualified for committing sexual offences.
Statement 3 is incorrect. It opined that death penalty should not be awarded for the offence of rape as there was considerable evidence that death penalty was not a deterrence to serious crimes. It recommended life imprisonment for rape.

Option 1 is correct. The Malimath Committee (2000) constituted by the Home Ministry on reforms in the Criminal Justice System of India submitted its report in 2003
Option 2 is correct. Ranbir Singh Committee for Reforms in Criminal Laws was constituted by the Union Home Ministry in May 2020. This committee is looking into the IPC, the CrPC (the Code of Criminal Procedure), the Indian Evidence Act and the Narcotics Act.
Option 3 is incorrect. Dr K. Kasturirangan Committee was set up to recommend the New National Education Policy of India. The report was submitted in 2019 and the NEP 2020 was notified recently.

Supreme Court’s Road Safety Committee headed the Justice KS Radhakrishnan was formed by the apex court on the basis of a PIL to measure and monitor the implementation of road safety laws in the country.
In its report [2015], the panel has recommended for ban on sale of alcohol on highways, both National and State highways, to curb the menace of road accident.
A total of 151,113 people were killed in 480,652 road accidents across India in 2019, an average of 414 a day or 17 an hour, according to a report by the transport research wing of the ministry of road transport and highways.
According to the report, speeding was the leading cause of deaths, while, in terms of vehicles, two-wheelers were involved in most road fatalities.
India continued to have the most road fatalities in the world, followed by China.

Both statements are correct.
In order to encourage the cities to improve the status of urban sanitation, the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) started an annual ranking of the cities in the year 2016. The first Swachh Survekshan conducted in 2016 covered 73 cities and subsequently numbers of cities were added to expand the coverage. This year in 2020 the coverage of the survey includes 4242 cities (including 62 cantonment boards).
Chhattisgarh won the prestigious title of the Cleanest State of India in the > 100 ULB category while Jharkhand was adjudged the Cleanest State of India in the <100 ULB category.
Indore won the coveted title of the Cleanest City of India, Surat and Navi Mumbai won the second and third position respectively (in the > 1 lakh population category).

Option 1 is correctly matched. The National Digital Health Blueprint was prepared by a Health Ministry panel headed by J. Satyanarayana with an objective to create a framework for the national health stack proposed in 2018 by the NITI Aayog.
Option 2 is correctly matched. Union Home Ministry constituted a high-level committee to introduce reforms in criminal laws under the chairmanship of Ranbir Singh, Vice-Chancellor, National Law University (NLU).
Option 3 is correctly matched. A panel was set up by SEBI in September 2019 under the Chairmanship of Ishaat Hussain to recommend on the norms for setting up Social Stock Exchange in India as declared by Finance Minister in 2019-20 Budget Speech.

Statement 1 is correct. The Transgender Persons (Protection of Rights) Act 2019 mandates for creation of the National Council for Transgender Persons.
The NCT consists of Union Minister for Social Justice (Chairperson), representative from ministries including Health, Home Affairs, and Human Resources Development, NITI Aayog, and the National Human Rights Commission among others. State governments are also represented.
Further the Council also consists of five members from the transgender community and five experts from non-governmental organisations.
Statement 2 is correct. The council has following functions:
-advising the central government on the formulation of policies, programmes, legislation and projects with respect to transgender persons;
-monitoring and evaluating the impact of policies and programmes designed for achieving equality and full participation of transgender persons;
-reviewing and coordinating the activities of all the departments;
-redressing grievances of transgender persons.

The Indian Association of Parliamentarians for Population and Development (IAPPD) recently released the report titled- ‘Status of Sex Ratio at Birth in India’.
It mentions that there has not been any change in the sex ratio at birth in India from 2001-2017–the number of girl children born is much less than what is the general or natural norm.
The Indian Association of Parliamentarians on Population and Development (IAPPD) is a national level Non-Governmental organization.
# Vice-President of India recently Released Two Research Reports of IAPPD, ‘Status of Sex Ratio at Birth in India’ and ‘Elderly Population in India: Status and Support Systems’.

Besides, economic reforms in various sectors, various Committees were set up from time to time (by the Government of India and by RBI) to discuss policy issues related to international trade and balance of payments.
Some of the important Committees were –
• Committee on Export – Import Policies & Procedures (Alexander Committee, 1978),
• Committee on Trade policy (Abid Hussain Committee, 1984),
• High – level Committee on Balance of Payments (Rangarajan Committee 1993), and
• Committee on Capital Account Convertibility (Tarapore Committee I 1997 & Tarapore Committee II 2006).
• In 2003, the Vajpayee government forms a task force under Vijay Kelkar to recommend tax reforms. In 2004, Vijay Kelkar, then advisor to the Finance Ministry, recommends GST to replace the existing tax regime.

The government has set up a working group under Niti Aayog member Ramesh Chand to revise the current series of Wholesale Price Index (WPI) with base 2011-12 and devise a new Producer Price Index (PPI).
• The group will review the commodity basket of the current series of WPI, suggest changes in commodities in the light of structural changes in the economy witnessed since 2011-12 and decide on the computational methodology to be adopted for monthly WPI/PPI.
• The government had in 2014 constituted a committee under Professor BN Goldar to devise a PPI after the Reserve Bank of India began considering consumer price inflation as a better gauge of inflation than WPI.

India’s richest 1% hold more than four-times the wealth held by 953 million people who make up for the bottom 70% of the country’s population, while the total wealth of all Indian billionaires is more than the full-year budget.
• Releasing the study Time to Care, ahead of the 50th Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF), rights group Oxfam also said the world’s 2,153 billionaires have more wealth than the 4.6 billion people who make up 60 per cent of the planet’s population.
• The report flagged that global inequality is shockingly entrenched and vast and the number of billionaires has doubled in the last decade, despite their combined wealth having declined in the last year.

Tamil Nadu has bagged the top position in the composite ranking for good governance index (GGI), followed by Maharashtra and Karnataka, according to data provided by the Personnel Ministry.
• The states and union territories have been divided into three groups — big states, north-east and hill states, and union territories — for the rankings based on certain indicators separately.
• The objectives of GGI are to provide quantifiable data to compare the state of governance in all states and union territories, enable them to formulate and implement suitable strategies for improving governance and shift to result oriented approaches and administration.

Healthy States, Progressive India is an annual report of Niti Aayog ranks states and Union territories innovatively on their year-on-year incremental change in health outcomes, as well as, their overall performance with respect to each other.
The report has been prepared by Niti Aayog in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare and technical assistance from the World Bank.

The report of the Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution red-flagging tap water quality in major Indian cities comes as no surprise, given that many official water distribution agencies routinely advise consumers to consume only boiled water.
• Going by the matrix of tests carried out by the Bureau of Indian Standards for the Ministry, Delhi has abysmal water quality, Chennai and Kolkata rank very low, and Mumbai is the only city with acceptable results.
• City water systems are normatively required to comply with the national standard for drinking water IS 10500:2012, but most obviously feel no compulsion to do so.

The committees/commissions related to De-notified/criminal tribes.
•The Ananthsayanam Ayyangar Committee (gave a comprehensive report on how
CTA worked throughout India), the CTA was repealed in August 1949 and former
“criminal tribes” were de-notified in 1952, when the Act was replaced with the
Habitual Offenders Act, 1952 of Government of India.
•In 2002, Justice Venkatchaliah Commission recommended for strengthening the
programmes for economic and educational development of De-Notified Tribes
(DNTs).
•National Commission for De-notified Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes was
constituted in 2005 under the chairmanship of Balkrishna Sidke Renke, to study
the socio-economic conditions of these groups.
•Another National Commission for De-notified Nomadic and Semi-Nomadic Tribes
chaired by Bhiku Ramji Idate was constituted in 2015 for a three-year period. It
submitted its report viz “Voices of the Denotified, Nomadic & SemiNomadic Tribes”
in 2018.

Statement 1 is correct. The Ministry of Electronics and Information

Technology and NITI Aayog are organizing the RAISE 2020- ‘Responsible AI for Social

Empowerment 2020, a Mega Virtual Summit on Artificial Intelligence-AI from 5th to 9th of

October.

Statement 2 is correct. RAISE 2020 is a global meeting of minds to exchange ideas and

chart a course for using AI for social transformation, inclusion and empowerment in

areas like Healthcare, Agriculture, Education and Smart Mobility, among other sectors.

Option 1 is incorrectly matched. Kris Gopalakrishnan Committee was

formed in 2019 to recommend on the Non-Personal Data Governance Framework.

Option 2 is incorrectly matched. The Justice BN Srikrishna Committee was constituted by

the Union government in July 2017, to deliberate on a data protection framework. The

committee submitted its report in 2018 also proposed a draft Personal Data Protection Bill.

Option 3 is correctly matched. In July 2018, the NITI Aayog released a proposal document,

National Health Stack (NHS). A committee was formed to create an implementation

framework for NHS as National Digital Health Blueprint, chaired by former UIDAI

Chairman J. Satyanarayana. The committee submitted its report in 2019.

Both statements are correct.

The recent ‘Levels and Trends in Child Mortality: Report 2020’ from UNICEF and

partners in the UN Inter-Agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN IGME), shows

the full scope of child mortality rates across the world – from newborns to adolescents,

including for the first time this year, estimates for youth aged 15–24 years – as well as the

progress made toward meeting the SDG targets by 2030.

The under-five mortality rate was reduced from 93 deaths per 1,000 live births in 1990 to

38 deaths in 2019—a 59 per cent reduction (see Table 1). One in every 11 children died

before reaching their fifth birthday in 1990. By 2019, that number was reduced to 1 in 27.

Nearly half (49 per cent) of all under-five deaths in 2019 occurred in just five countries:

Nigeria, India, Pakistan, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and Ethiopia. Nigeria and

India alone account for almost a third.

The under-five mortality rate (deaths per 1,000 live births) in India declined to 34 in 2019

from 126 in 1990.

The government has recently set up an expert committee headed by former

comptroller and auditor general (CAG) Rajiv Mehrishi to assess the impact of “waiving

of interest and waiving of interest on interest on the Covid-19-related moratorium” on

the economy and financial stability.

The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) had in March this year allowed banks to offer a threemonth

moratorium on principal and interest payments beginning March 1 to provide relief

to borrowers hit by the Covid-19 pandemic. This was later extended by another three

months to August 31.

Statement 1 is incorrect. Global Summit of NRI Researchers called
Vaishvik Bhartiya Vaigyanik (Vaibhav) Summit is a collaborative initiative by S&T and
Academic Organisations of India to enable deliberations on thought process, practices
and R&D culture with a problem-solving approach for well-defined objectives.
The virtual summit will be inaugurated by the Prime Minister on 2nd October’2020.
[The Hindu says it is being organized by Department of Science & Technology and Defence
Research & Development Organistaion]
Statement 2 is correct. It is aimed at developing mechanisms for involving Indian Diaspora
working in top universities and R&D organisations across the world, to further enhance the
knowledge-base of Indian Research and Academic Institutions.
Summit aims to give an impetus to the objectives of Atal Innovation Mission by leveraging
the collaborative experience and deep expertise of International and Indian subject experts. Vaibhav summit seeks active support and ideation from Indian Diaspora for developing
skills of Indian aspirants in alignment with the New Educational Policy.

The Institute for Management Development, in collaboration with
Singapore University for Technology and Design (SUTD), has released the 2020 Smart City
Index.
Citizens from 109 cities were surveyed in April and May 2020 and asked questions on the
technological provisions of their city across five key areas: health and safety, mobility,
activities, opportunities and governance.
Singapore has topped the index followed by Helsinki (Finland) and Zurich (Switzerland).
India: Hyderabad; 85th rank (down from 67 in 2019)
New Delhi; 86th rank (down from 68 in 2019)
Mumbai; 93rd rank (down from 78 in 2019)
Bengaluru; 95th rank (down from 79 in 2019).

National Crime Record Bureau has recently released its annual “Crime in
India” 2019 report. Crime rate registered showed an increase from 21.2 (per lakh
population) in 2018 to 22.8 in 2019.
Statement 1 is incorrect. As per the report, crimes against Scheduled Castes went up 7.3
per cent since 2018.
The crimes against women also went up 7.3 per cent in the same period. The crime rate
registered per lakh women population is 62.4 in 2019 in comparison with 58.8 in 2018.
Statement 2 is correct. Uttar Pradesh reported the highest number of crimes against
women (59,853), accounting for 14.7 per cent of such cases across the country. It was
followed by Rajasthan (41,550 cases; 10.2 per cent) and Maharashtra (37,144 cases; 9.2
per cent).
Assam reported the highest rate of crime against women at 177.8 (per lakh population),
followed by Rajasthan (110.4) and Haryana (108.5).

National Statistical Office (NSO) conducted the first Time Use Survey in
India during January – December 2019 and has recently published the Time Use in India-
2019 report.
The primary objective of Time Use Survey (TUS) is to measure participation of men and
women in paid and unpaid activities. TUS is an important source of information on the time
spent in unpaid caregiving activities, volunteer work, and unpaid domestic service
producing activities of the household members. It also provides information on time spent
on learning, socializing, leisure activities, self-care activities, etc., by the household
members.

The Union Government had constituted an inter-ministerial committee headed by Ashok Dalwai to prepare a blueprint for doubling farmers’ income by 2022. The Committee submitted its final report to the Government in September 2018.
It recommended to place agricultural marketing in the Concurrent list and a greater private sector participation in agri-marketing and logistics. It suggested that farmer producer and village producer organisations (FPO/VPO) could play a critical role in integrating small and marginal farmers into the agricultural market system.

The World malaria report, published annually by World Health Organisation (WHO), provides a comprehensive update on global and regional malaria data and trends. The report tracks investments in malaria programmes and research as well as progress across all intervention areas: prevention, diagnosis, treatment and surveillance.
The World Malaria Report (WMR) 2020 indicates that India has made considerable progress in reducing its malaria burden. India is the only high endemic country which has reported a decline of 17.6% in 2019 as compared to 2018.
The Annual Parasitic Incidence (API) reduced by 27.6% in 2018 compared to 2017 and by 18.4% in 2019 as compared to 2018. India has sustained API less than one since year 2012.

The World Trade Report (WTR) is the annual report published since 2003 by the World Trade Organization. Each WTR provides an in-depth analysis of an aspect of trends in international trade, trade policy issues and the multilateral trading system.
The 2020 edition of the World Trade Organization’s (WTO) World Trade Report analyzes the adoption of government policies to foster digital innovation and technological progress for economies, and explains the WTO’s role in this changing context.
It observes that the COVID-19 pandemic has accelerated the uptake of digital innovation and e-commerce and led countries to strengthen policies aimed at boosting growth through innovation and technological upgrading

The Global Wage Report 2020-21 released by the Iternational Labour Organisation looks at recent trends in wages, the global economic and labour market context, and the impact that the pandemic has had on wages. The report also includes a number of policy recommendations to mitigate the negative impact of the crisis.
–During 2016-19, the global wage growth fluctuated between 1.6% and 2.2%.
–In the first half of 2020, the average wages in two-third countries fell or grew more slowly due to the novel coronavirus disease (COVID-19) pandemic.
–In the remaining one-third of countries — an increase in average wages was observed as the result of a large number of low-paid workers losing their jobs or leaving the labour market.

IIT-Bombay researchers have compiled and released an Urban Quality of Life Index comparing the quality of life in various cities in India and ranked them on the basis of various categories such as water, power, electricity, literacy rate, employment rate among others.
–Mumbai has topped the index followed by Delhi, Kolkata and Chennai.
–The index has factored in gender parity; Chennai is the most women-friendly city and Patna the least.

The 5th India Water Impact Summit (IWIS), organized by the National Mission for Clean Ganga and Center for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga) began on 10th December with the theme of comprehensive analysis and holistic management of local rivers and water bodies with focus on Arth Ganga – river conservation synchronized development.
The Centre for Ganga River Basin Management and Studies (cGanga) was established at the Indian Institute of Technology, Kanpur (IITK) in 2016. The Centre is a Centre of Excellence for data collection, the creation and dissemination of knowledge and information for the sustainable development of Ganga River Basin.

The Urban Governance Index (UGI)-2020 have been released recently by the Praja Foundation non-profit foundation. The study for the Urban Governance Index 2020 spanned three years (2017-2020) in 40 cities across 28 states as well as the NCT of Delhi.
Odisha has topped the rankings followed by Maharashtra, Chhattisgarh, Kerala and Madhya Pradesh. The index revealed that Kerala had the most empowered city-elected representatives and legislative structure while Tamil Nadu had the most empowered city administration out of all 29 states.

Statement 1 is correct. International Telecommunication Union (ITU) is the specialized agency of the United Nations on Telecommunications. India has been a member of ITU since 1869. The ITU has three sectors viz. Standardization, Radio, Development. For Asia Pacific regional coordination, it has a regional office in Bangkok. India is also a Member in the current council.
Statement 2 is correct. The spectrum licenses auctioned by DoT are valid for 20 years and can be renewed by the respective buyers.
The Union Cabinet has recently approved a proposal of the Department of Telecommunications to conduct spectrum auction through which spectrum will be assigned to the successful bidders for providing commercial mobile services.
The auction will be for spectrum in 700 MHz, 800 MHz, 900 MHz, 1800 MHz, 2100 MHz, 2300 MHz and 2500 MHz frequency bands. Spectrum will be offered for assignment for validity period of 20 years.

India’s rivers have a heavy metal contamination problem. According to The
Hindu, samples taken from two-thirds of water quality stations on major rivers revealed
the presence of a heavy metal (or in some cases more than one) beyond limits specified by
the Bureau of Indian Standards.
•The Central Water Commission (CWC) collected a total of 442 surface water
samples, of which 287 were polluted by heavy metals.
•“Samples from 101 stations had contamination by two metals, [and] six stations saw
contamination by three metals”.
•The most common heavy metal found was iron, and above safe limits in 156
samples. Lead, nickel, chromium, cadmium and copper were the other metals.

Social Mobility Index is newly compiled, released by the World Economic
Forum ahead of the 50th Annual Meeting of the WEF in January 2020.
•India has been ranked very low at 76th place out of 82 countries on a new Social
Mobility Index compiled by the World Economic Forum, while Denmark has topped
the charts.
•Measuring countries across five key dimensions distributed over 10 pillars —
health; education (access, quality and equity); technology; work (opportunities,
wages, conditions); and protections and institutions (social protection and
inclusive institutions) — shows that fair wages, social protection and lifelong
learning are the biggest drags on social mobility globally.

The GHI has been brought out almost every year by Welthungerhilfe (lately
in partnerships with Concern Worldwide) since 2000.
•In 2018, India was ranked 103 out of 119 countries. In 2000, the country was
ranked 83 out of 113 countries. Now, with 117 countries in the fray, it has dropped
to 102.
•India is ranked 102 of 117 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2019, behind
its neighbours Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh.
•It’s GHI score has also decelerated — from 38.9 in 2005 to 32 in 2010 and
then from 32 to 30.3 between 2010 and 2019.
•The GHI score is calculated on four indicators — undernourishment; child
wasting, the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (that is, who
have low weight for their height, reflecting acute under-nutrition); child stunting,
children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic
under-nutrition; and child mortality, the mortality rate of children under the age of
five.

SDG India Index is a single measurable Index to map the progress of States &
UTs towards 2030 SDGs.
•The index is released by NITI Aayog, it is developed in collaboration with the
Ministry of Statistics &Programme Implementation (MoSPI).
•Kerala tops states in progress towards UN Sustainable Development Goals, while
Bihar is at the bottom of Niti Aayog’s SDG Index.
•Himachal Pradesh and Sikkim have joined all the southern states in the top tier
of front runners who scored more than 65 points, out of a possible 100.

7th Central Pay Commission (CPC) headed by Justice AK Mathur has recommended 23.55 percent hike in pay and allowances of government employees.
In this regard the commission has submitted its report to Union Finance Ministry in New Delhi and the recommended pay revision will come into effect from 1 January 2016.