During Question Hour in Parliament, which is in the midst of its monsoon session, Ministers answer questions posed by other Members of Parliament on administrative issues. This week, Lok Sabha members revealed several noteworthy data nuggets, eight of which are discussed below:
Share of electric vehicles in India
There were 13,34,385 electric vehicles in India as of July 14, 2022. On the same date, there were 27,81,69,631 non-electric vehicles. This means, cumulatively, there were only 0.47 electric vehicles for every 100 non-electric vehicles. However, the ratio has been increasing over the years. In 2019, there were 0.79 electric vehicle registrations for every 100 non-electric ones; in 2022, the ratio improved to 4.4.
Renouncing Indian citizenship
In 2021, close to 1.63 lakh Indians renounced their citizenship. At least 47% of them secured U.S. citizenship. About 9% of them received U.K. citizenship, over 14% became citizens of Australia and 13% became Canadians.
Medical colleges and MBBS seats
As of FY23, there are 91,927 MBBS seats across 612 medical colleges in India. The number of seats has increased by 36% and the number of colleges by 27% compared to FY18. Close to 52% of the MBBS seats are in government colleges. Tamil Nadu leads the list with 10,725 seats closely followed by Karnataka with 10,145. Sikkim is the only State without a single government medical college.
Migrant workers and the pandemic
The number of migrant workers who returned from the Gulf region to India during the pandemic far outnumbered those who emigrated for work from India to the region. Between June 2020 and December 2021, the eMigrate system recorded 1,41,172 people leaving India to work in the Gulf. Most people (51,496) went to Qatar. However, in the same period, more than 4 lakh Indians returned from these countries. To be precise, 4,11,509 people left the region for India. About 1.5 lakh were from the UAE.
Nirbhaya fund allocation
The Nirbhaya fund finances several schemes and projects aimed at ensuring the safety and protection of women. Between 2019 and 2022, Uttar Pradesh received the most funding: ₹317.82 crore. Delhi received the second highest amount (₹306.61 crore), while Lakshadweep was allocated the least (₹0.73 crore). Data show that Delhi registered the highest number of calls to the Women Helpline number (11,21,711) followed by Punjab, Gujarat, Andhra Pradesh and Uttar Pradesh.
Malnutrition in tribal communities
Between 2016 and 2021, malnutrition in children below the age of five in Scheduled Tribe communities reduced marginally. Stunting (height-for-age) came down to 40.9% in NFHS-5 (2019-21) from 43.8% in NFHS-4 (2015-16). Wasting (weight-for-height) reduced from 27.4% to 23.3% in the same time period. However, the percentage of underweight children under the age of five increased marginally by 0.3% points from 14.2% to 14.5%. In Madhya Pradesh, which has the highest number of Nutritional Rehabilitation Centres (NRC), 40% of children below the age of five were stunted in 2019-21. Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, Dadra and Nagar Haveli, Manipur, Nagaland and Tripura have only one functional NRC each.
Domestic air travel improves
The domestic air traffic rate has increased notably in 2021-22 compared to 2020-21. About 83 million domestic passengers flew in 2021-22 compared to around 53 million in 2020-2021. However, the levels are yet to return to pre-pandemic levels. In 2019-20, about 137 million domestic passengers flew, 65% higher than the current level.
Vacancies in the Military
Thousands of posts are vacant in the Indian Army, the Navy and the Air Force. In the Army, of the nearly 57,000 officer positions sanctioned, about 7,000 (12%) were vacant as of January 1 this year. Of the 12 lakh junior commissioned officers, over 1 lakh remain vacant. In the Navy, 1,446 officer posts and 12,551 sailor jobs remain vacant. In the Air Force, 5,217 Airmen and 572 officer posts are vacant
Chart of the week
The chart shows the PhD applications to IIT Delhi from a community as a % of total applications received by the university and the admitted PhD applications in IIT Delhi from a community as a % of total admissions in 2021. In IIT Delhi, while applications from the General Category formed only 52.7% of the total applications, the community formed 70.5% of those admitted. Applications from the SC community were 12.2% and only 5.8% of admissions were from the community. Such disparities were witnessed across at least nine IITs of the 23 analysed by The Hindu Data Team. More on this, here.
Fortnightly figures
1.60 crore: The number of waitlisted railway passengers dropped from the reservation charts in 2019-20 due to lack of space in trains.
1.06 crore: The number of ration cards cancelled between 2019 to 2021 because of de-duplication, identification of ineligible/ duplicate/ ghost/ fake ration cards, permanent migration, deaths, etc
1,62,654 crore: The worth of Licence Fee (LF) and Spectrum Usage Charges (SUC) that are due from various Telecom Service Providers (TSPs) to the government. LF and SUCs are payable by the licensees on the basis of the finalised Adjusted Gross Revenue (AGR). For addressing the financial stress in the sector, government has given an option of moratorium of up to four years on LF and SUC dues assessed up to FY 2018-19, to be paid by the licensees in yearly instalments by 31.03.2031.
14%: The share of Indian schoolchildren who dropped out of secondary school in 2020-21. Gujarat (23.3%) and Madhya Pradesh (23.8%) had the highest dropout rates among major States
Flashback: a look back at how we got here
On Sunday, Olympic champion Neeraj Chopra scripted history by becoming only the second Indian and the first male track and field athlete to win a medal at the World Championships by clinching a silver in the javelin throw final. He was in fourth position after three rounds of throws, having opened with a foul. In the next two attempts, he registered 82.39m and 86.37m. He got his rhythm back with a big fourth round throw of 88.13m, his fourth career-best effort. With this he jumped to second place, which he held onto till the end.
On June 14, Chopra had created a new national record in javelin throw with an 89.3 m effort at the Paavo Nurmi Games in Turku, Finland. An analysis by The Hindu Data team after the feat in Finland showed that Chopra’s national record throw of 89.3m has been matched or surpassed only 3% of the times since 1986.
Read more, here.
The cost of a domestic LPG cylinder (14.2 Kg) at Delhi crossed the ₹1,050 mark in July. Just three years ago, in April 2019, the cost was almost ₹350 lower. Such rapid increases in LPG price has resulted in poor usage of gas for cooking, with people going back to unclean fuel. The data point published on June 2021 explains this crisis.
Read more, here.
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