NEWS AND GK ANALYSIS

INDIA’S FERTILITY RATE

NFHS -5
Total Fertility Rate (TFR), or the average number of children per
woman, has declined further from 2.2 reported in 2015-16 to 2.0 at
the all-India level, according to the latest NFHS -5 (Phase 2 ) released
by the Union Health Ministry
TFR: 1.6 in Urban areas and TFR: 2.1 in Rural India TFR: 2.0 All
India . The NFHS-5 survey work has been conducted in around 6.1
lakh sample households from 707 districts of the country; covering
7,24,115 women and 1,01,839 men to provide disaggregated
estimates up to district level.
FERTILIT Y RATE
Fertility rate, average number of children born to women during their
reproductive years. ... If, on average, women give birth to 2.1 children
and these children survive to the age of 15, any given woman will
have replaced herself and her partner upon death. A TFR of 2.1 is
known as the replacement rate.
According to the United Nations’ population division, countries
experiencing belowreplacement fertility — lower than 2.1 children per
woman — indicates that a generation is not producing enough children
to replace itself, eventually leading to an outright reduction in
population. TFR of 2 indicates stability of population in the long term in
the country. The number means two parents are replacing two
children. In the long run, we will have a potential growth rate of zero.
It is not immediate .
India is still not expected to experience a fall in its population, for
another 30 or 40 years, in part because more than 30% are between
the ages of 10 and 30 and are likely to have children over the next two
decades.
A population that maintained a TFR of 3.8 over an extended period
without a correspondingly high death or emigration rate would
increase rapidly (doubling period ~ 32 years), whereas a population
that maintained a TFR of 2.0 over a long time would decrease, unless
it had a large enough immigration.

POPUL ATION FOUNDATION OF INDIA

“Yet, India’s overall population size will not shrink immediately. The
country is experiencing a population momentum as a result of a
demographic transition. India has a high proportion, about 30.9%, of
young persons in the age group of 10 to 24 years who are in the
reproductive age group or will soon be.
Contraceptives Usage has improved from 53.5% to 66.7% in the latest
NFHS-5
Nutritional Status
Women Population
India now has 1,020 women for every 1000 men, is not getting any
younger, and no longer faces the threat of a population explosion. All
three radical findings are part of the summary findings of the fifth
round of the National Family and Health Survey (NFHS), which were
released by the Union health ministry on November 24.
ARE THE FINDINGS OF THE SURVEY SURPRISING?
Caution is in order while reading the latest sex ratio number. India’s
projected population was 1.29 billion in 2016. If sex ratio were to be
991, as estimated by NFHS 2015-16, the population would then have
comprised 643 million women and 649 million men.
For a projected population of 1.36 billion in 2021, with a sex ratio of
1,020, there would be 688 million women and 675 million men. Such a
break-up means a near-double rise in the population of women against
that of men in the last five years (45 million women vis-a-vis 26
million men). The difference seems huge, even after factoring in
differing death rates of the sexes.
CENSUS VS NFHS DATA?
NFHS, while being a large-scale survey that covered roughly 650,000
households in the latest round across states, has consistently
overestimated sex ratio, compared with population census. In 2005-
06, NFHS reckoned the sex ratio at 1:1, whereas census 2011
revealed it to be 943 females per 1,000 males.
NFHS estimate, after exhibiting progress between 1998-99 and 2005-
06, fell again in 2015-16. The good news is that census data has
shown a steady rise in sex ratio for the last three decades. Population
experts suggest covid-related migrant flows may have influenced
NFHS findings
ROLE OF BBBP?
Beti Bachao Beti Padhao (BBBP) was launched in 2015 to improve the
declining child sex ratio (CSR)—girls per 1,000 boys in 0-6 years. Sex
ratio at birth (SRB) estimated by NFHS can be an imperfect proxy for
CSR.
Among the states with low SRB, Delhi (812 to 923), Haryana (836 to
893) and Punjab (860 to 904) showed marked improvements, whereas
Rajasthan (887 to 891) stagnated in the last five years. These states
also had a larger representation in the districts targeted under first
and second phase of BBBP (2015-17).
DOES THIS MEAN MORE WOMEN AT WORK?
No. Over the last two decades, India has slipped on the labour force
participation rate (LFPR) of females above 15 years despite an
improving sex ratio. From 38% in 2001, LFPR of females has fallen to
26% in 2020, World Bank data shows. This fares poorly against 78%
LFPR of males in India. A key reason for this gap is a higher
participation rate for Indian women, than for men, in unpaid domestic
duties. For India to shed its “Missing Women" tag, it must invest in
policies to ensure women are not missing in the workforce.
WHAT HAS HAPPENED?
Prime Minister Narendra Modi remains the world's most popular leader
with an approval rating of 71% of India's adult population, According
to a US-based global leader approval tracker Morning Consult.
Among the 13 leaders surveyed by the research firm, PM Modi tops the
list with 71%, Followed by Mexico's Andrés Manuel López Obrador
(66%), Italy's Mario Draghi (60%) and Japan's Fumio Kishida (48%).
PM Modi also happens to have the lowest disapproval rating at 21%.
US President Joe Biden and Canada's Justin Trudeau got an approval
rating of 43% each and were placed at sixth and seventh spot,
respectively. British PM Boris Johnson, embroiled in the 'partygate'
scandal, ranked the lowest among the leaders surveyed with 26%
approval rating.

In the last two years, PM Modi's approval rating touched a high of

84% on May 2, 2020.
His approval rating was at the lowest on May 7, 2021 with
63% when the second wave of coronavirus was at its peak in the
country.
A Brief on the Census 2011
1) The population of the country as per the provisional figures
of Census 2011 is 1210.19 million of which 623.7 million
(51.54%) are males&586.46 million (48.46%) are females.
Major highlights of the Census 2011 (Provisional figures) are
as under:
*The population of India has increased by more than 181 million
during the decade 2001-2011. 2) %age growth in 2001-2011 is
17.64; males
17.19&females 18.12. 3)
*Uttar Pradesh (199.5 million) is the most populous State in the
country
followed by Maharashtra with 112 million.
Some of the highlights
• Slogan - Our census, Our Future
• India's 1st Census - 1872 • 2011 Census is - 15th Census
• Total Population - 1,21,01,93,422
• India's Rank in population - 2nd with 17.5% (1st China with 19%)
• Most Populous State - Uttar Pradesh • Least Populous State - Sikkim
• Most Literate State - Kerala (93.9%) • Least Literate State - Bihar
(63.82%)
• National Sex Ratio - Female : Male (940 : 1000)
• Highest Sex Ratio (State) - Kerala (1084 : 1000)
• Lowest Sex Ratio (State) - Haryana • Highest Sex Ratio (UT) -
Puducherry
• Least Sex Ratio (UT) – Daman & Diu (618 : 1000)
• Literacy of Male - 82.14% • Literacy of Female - 65.46%
• Population Growth Rate - 17.64% • Highest fertility Rate -
Meghalaya
• Most literate union territory - Lakshadweep (92.2%)
• Least literate Union Territory - Dadra Nagar & Haweli
• Most Literate District - Serechhip (Mizoram)
• Least Literate District - Dadra Naga & Haveli
• Highest Density of Population - Bihar (1102 sq.km)
• Lowest Density of Population - Arunachal Pradesh (17)
• Total number of districts - 640 • Highest Populous District - Thane
(Mumbai)
• 100% Literacy District - Palakkad (Kerala)
• 100% Banking State - Kerala
• 100% Banking District - Palakkad (Kerala)
• Density of Population in India - 382 sq. km
• Increase in population (during 2001-2011) - 181 million .

Healthy States, Progressive India: Health Index

Round IV (2019-20)’

For the fourth year in a row, Kerala has topped a ranking of

States on health indicators. The ‘Health Index’ report is
commissioned by: NITI Aayog World Bank Ministry of
Health and Family Welfare.
Introduction
In 2017 the National Institution for Transforming India (NITI Aayog)
in collaboration with the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare
(MoHFW) and the
World Bank initiated an annual Health Index.
The objective of the Annual Health Index is to track progress on
health outcomes and health systems performance, develop healthy
competition and encourage cross learning among states and UTs.

Indicators: Health Index is a weighted composite score

incorporating 24 indicators covering key aspects of health
performance. The Health Index is based on select indicators in three
domains:
(a) Health Outcomes
(b) Governance and Information
(c) Key Inputs and Processes.
Health outcomes, includes parameters such as
neonatal mortality rate under-5 mortality rate sex ratio
at birth.
Governance includes parameters such as institutional
deliveries average occupancy of senior officers in key posts
earmarked for health.

‘Key inputs’ domain consists of:

Proportion of shortfall in health care providers to what is
recommended functional medical facilities birth and death
registration tuberculosis treatment success rate.

Key Results:
Among the Larger States - Kerala, Tamil Nadu and Telangana
emerged
among the best three performers in terms of Overall Performance.
Uttar Pradesh with the lowest Overall Reference Year (2019- 20)
Index Score ranked at the bottom (Rank 19) in Overall Performance.
 However, Uttar Pradesh is ranked at the top in terms of
Incremental
Performance by registering the highest incremental change from the
Base
Year (2018-19) to Reference Year (2019-20). Among the Smaller
States, Mizoram emerged as the best performer in Overall
Performance as well as Incremental Performance .

Limitations of this report:

Health Index is a work in progress and continuous refinements will be
made as additional quality data becomes available and data systems
improve. Some critical areas such as:
• infectious diseases • noncommunicable diseases (NCDs) • mental
health • governance, and • financial risk protection .

These areas are not fully captured in the Health Index due to
nonavailability of acceptable quality of data on an annual basis.
For several indicators, the data is limited to service delivery in
public facilities due to paucity and uneven availability of private
sector data on health services in the HMIS.
For outcome indicators, such as Neonatal Mortality Rate, Under five
Mortality Rate, Maternal Mortality Ratio and Sex Ratio at Birth, data
are available only for Larger States.
Due to continuous refinements like addition/deletion of indicators,
definition refinement of some of the indicators, the Index is not
comparable over different rounds.

The Health Index is a useful tool to measure and compare the Overall
Performance and Incremental Performance across states and UTs
over time . To nudge the states and UTs to shift the focus from
inputs and outputs to outcomes.
The MoHFW’s decision to link the Index to incentives under the
National Health Mission (NHM) has been instrumental in shifting the
focus from budget spends, inputs and outputs to outcomes by shining
the light on states/UTs that have shown most improvement.
Based on the interim findings of the fourth round of the Health
Index, MoHFW provided 10 % of the state/UTs’ total NHM funds as
NHM incentive based on agreed conditionalities.
The Health Index has strengthened the culture of use of data at
the state/UT level to monitor performance and is contributing to the
agenda of improving availability, quality and timeliness of data. In
most states/UTs, the annual performance of the state/UT has been
monitored at the highest level of the government using the Health
Index report.
Also, several states such as Andhra Pradesh, Assam,
Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Karnataka have replicated the Index
and are regularly monitoring district performance using similar
tools.

Forest Survey

The Minister for Environment, Forest and Climate Change has released
the ‘India State of Forest Report 2021’ prepared by the Forest Survey
of India (FSI) .
(ISFR) is a publication of the Forest Survey of India (FSI),
under the
Ministry of Environment Forest & Climate Change (MoEFCC).
The India State of Forest Report (ISFR) 2021 is the 17th
report, first published in the year 1987.
Highlights of India State of Forest Report –

1. 2021 The total forest and tree cover was 80.9 million hectares,
24.62% of
the geographical area of the country.
2. The forest and the tree cover has increased by 2,261 sq km in
India since
2019. Forest cover -increased by 1,540 sq. km. Tree cover has
increased by
721 sq. km.
3. 17 States and Union Territories had more than 33%

The report has classified India’s forests into four categories.

Very dense Forest – All lands with tree cover (including mangrove
cover) of canopy density of 70% and above. 3.04% increase of a
mere 501 sq km in the last two years.
Moderately Dense Forest – 40% - 70%. 9.33% loss of 1,582 sq
km

Open Forest – 10% -40% biggest share, accounting for 9.34% of

the total forest cover. increase of 2,612 sq km.

Scrub – All forest lands with poor tree growth mainly of small or
stunted trees less than 10%.
Loss of forest cover in the Himalayas and North East regions
increase in developmental activities coupled with agriculture.

Key Findings In terms of area, the list of top 5 states in terms

of Largest
Forest Area in India are given below,
Madhya Pradesh Arunachal Pradesh Chhattisgarh Odisha
Maharashtra Forest Cover as a percentage of total geographical
area, the top 5 states are listed below, Mizoram (84.53%)
Arunachal Pradesh (79.33%)
Meghalaya (76.00%) Manipur (74.34%) Nagaland (73.90%)

total mangrove cover -increased by 17 sq. km, to reach 4,992 sq.

km. Top states showing mangrove cover increase are, Odisha (8 sq
km) Maharashtra (4 sq km) Karnataka (3 sq km) The total carbon
stock in forests has been estimated to be 7,204 million tonnes, an
increase of 79.4 million tonnes compared to 2019.

assessment of forest cover in tiger reserves, corridors and lion

conservation areas of India.

About the Global Hunger Index:

It was first produced in 2006. It is published every October.

The 2021 edition marks the 16th edition of the GHI.
o Aim: To comprehensively measure and track hunger at the
global, regional, and country levels.
The report, prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern
Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe,
mentioned the level of hunger in India as “alarming” with its
GHI score decelerating from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.8
– 27.5 between 2012 and 2021.
 The GHI score is calculated on 4 indicators:

1. Undernourishment - the share of the population that is

undernourished (that is, whose caloric intake is
insufficient)
2. Child Wasting the share of children under the age of five
who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute
undernutrition
3. Child Stunting children under the age of five who have low
height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition
4. Child Mortality the mortality rate of children under the age
of five. o Scoring:
• Based on the values of the four indicators, the GHI
determines hunger on a 100-point scale where 0 is the best
possible score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.
• Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to
extremely alarming.
o Data Collection:
Undernourishment data are provided by the Food and
Agriculture
Organisation and child mortality data are sourced from the UN
Inter-agency Group for Child Mortality Estimation (UN
IGME).Child wasting and stunting data are drawn from the
 joint database of UNICEF, the World Health Organization
(WHO) and the World Bank, among others.

Only 15 — Papua New Guinea (102), Afghanistan

countries (103), Nigeria (103), Congo (105),
Mozambique (106), Sierra Leone (106), Timor-
Leste (108), Haiti (109), Liberia (110), Madagascar (111),
Democratic
Republic of Congo (112), Chad (113), Central African
Republic (114), Yemen (115) and Somalia (116) — fared
worse than India this year.
According to the report, the share of wasting among children
in India rose from 17.1 per cent between 1998-2002 to 17.3
per cent between 2016-2020.

People have been severely hit by COVID-19 and by pandemic

related restrictions in India, the country with highest child
wasting rate worldwide.

Neighbouring countries like Nepal (76), Bangladesh (76),

Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92), which are still ahead of
India at feeding its citizens, are also in the ‘alarming’ hunger
category.

However, India has shown improvement in indicators like the

under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children
and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food.

India’s RANK in Global hunger Index in the past decade:

2010: 67
2011: 67 2012: 65 2013: 63
2014: 55
2015: 80 2016: 97
2017: 100
2018: 103 2019: 102 2020: 94
2021: 101
Globally

Although GHI scores show that global hunger has been on the
decline since 2000, progress is slowing.

While the GHI score for the world fell 4.7 points, from 25.1
to 20.4, between 2006 and 2012, it has fallen just 2.5 points
since 2012.

After decades of decline, the global prevalence of

undernourishment — one of the four indicators used to
calculate GHI scores — is increasing.

Reasons For Global Hunger

Worsening conflict, weather extremes associated with global
climate change, and the economic and health challenges
associated with Covid19 are contributing to hunger.

Also, Inequality between regions, countries, districts, and

communities is pervasive.

If left unchecked, it will keep the world from achieving the

Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mandate to “leave no
one behind”

Government of India Stand:

o The Ministry of Women and Child Development has
criticised the report claiming that the methodology used by
FAO is unscientific.
o According to the Government, the Global Hunger Index
Report 2021 and FAO report on ‘The State of Food Security
and Nutrition in the World 2021’ have completely ignored the
following facts:

Some Related Initiatives by India

▪ Eat Right India Movement: An outreach activity organised by
the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) for
citizens to nudge them towards eating right.
▪ POSHAN Abhiyan: Launched by the Ministry of Women and
Child Development in 2018, it targets to reduce stunting,
undernutrition, anemia (among young children, women and
adolescent girls).
▪ Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana: A centrally
sponsored scheme executed by the Ministry of Women and Child
Development, is a maternity benefit programme being
implemented in all districts of the country with effect from 1st
January, 2017.
▪ Food Fortification: Food Fortification or Food Enrichment is the
addition of key vitamins and minerals such as iron, iodine, zinc,
 Vitamin A & D to staple foods such as rice, milk and salt to
improve their nutritional content.
▪ National Food Security Act, 2013: It legally entitled up to
75% of the rural population and 50% of the urban population to
receive subsidized food grains under the Targeted Public
Distribution System.
▪ Mission Indradhanush: It targets children under 2 years of
age and pregnant women for immunization against 12 Vaccine-
Preventable Diseases (VPD).
▪ Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Scheme:
Launched on
2nd October, 1975, the ICDS Scheme offers a package of six
services (Supplementary Nutrition, Pre-school non-formal
education, Nutrition & health education, Immunization, Health
check-up and Referral services) to children in the age group of
0-6 years, pregnant women and lactating mothers.

The Corruption Perceptions Index

(CPI) is an index which ranks countries "by their perceived levels of
public sector corruption, as determined by expert assessments and
opinion surveys.“ The CPI generally defines corruption as an "abuse of
entrusted power for private gain". The index is published annually by
the non-governmental organisation Transparency International since
1995.
METHODS The 2012 CPI takes into account 16 different surveys and
assessments from 12 different institutions. The 13
surveys/assessments are either business people opinion surveys or
performance assessments from a group of analysts. Early CPIs used
public opinion surveys.
ABOUT THE INDEX - The index ranks 180 countries and territories
by their perceived levels of public sector corruption according to
experts and businesspeople. It uses a scale of zero to 100, where zero
is highly corrupt and 100 is very clean.

Countries that perform well on the index invest more in health care,
are better able to provide universal health coverage and are less likely
to violate democratic norms and institutions or the rule of law.
“COVID-19 is not just a health and economic crisis. It is a corruption
crisis. And one that we are currently failing to manage.”
“The past year has tested governments like no other in memory, and
those with higher levels of corruption have been less able to meet the
challenge.” INDIA On India, the report said the country experienced
slow progress in anticorruption efforts, with several government
commitments to reform not yet materialising effectively.
Under the PTI government, the ranking of Pakistan has gradually slid.
In 2019, it was 120 out of 180 countries, in 2020, it was 124 and in
2021 it worsened further to 140. In 2018, during the PML-N
government, the ranking was 117 out of 180 countries.
RECOMMENDATIONS

➢ Strengthen oversight institutions

➢ Mainstream anti-corruption policies
➢ Ensure open and transparent contracting
➢ Strengthen audit and oversight institutions
Defend democracy and promote civic space
➢ Publish relevant data and guarantee access to information

18-03-2022

The latest report of the Stockholm International Peace Research

Institute (SIPRI) on Trends in International Arms Transfer, 2021,
released in March 2022, Reveals that India and Saudi Arabia had
emerged as the largest arms importers of arms between 2017-21,
each accounting for 11% of all global arms sales.
It provides data, analysis and recommendations for armed
conflict, military expenditure and arms trade as well as
disarmament and arms control.
The report places India at the top of the list. Egypt, Australia
and China were the next three largest importers with
respective shares of 5.7%, 5.4% and 4.8%. However,
according to SIPRI, India’s total volume of imports fell by 21%
from 2012-16, which could be a reflection of the push to
manufacture arms and weapons systems indigenously.
India was the only country among the top five whose imports
had declined during the said period.
It is significant that 85% of India’s imports were from just three
countries: Russia (46%), France (27%), and USA (12%).

However, punitive sanctions imposed on Russia by the USA and its

North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO) allies, including France, for
its invasion of Ukraine had created a dilemma for India and Accounted
for it repeatedly abstaining from voting against Moscow in the United
Nations General Assembly over its militarism.
With more than 60% -according to some estimates, 80-85%- of the
equipment operated by its armed forces being of Russian-origin, India
cannot afford to support these sanctions without serious operational
consequences.
At the same time, it cannot also ignore the incessant pressure from
the USA and its allies to be categorical in condemning Russia’s brazen
invasion of Ukraine.
IMPORTS FROM FRANCE INCREASED
India’s imports of Russian arms dropped by 47% between the two
periods as several large programmes for Russian arms wound down.
This, combined with India’s increased efforts to diversify its
arms supplier base, meant that Russia’s share of total Indian
arms imports fell from 69% to 46%.
In contrast, India’s arms imports from France increased more than
tenfold, making it India’s second largest arms supplier in 2017–21.
GLOBAL SCENARIO
The volume of global arms transfers between 2017 and 2021
was 4.6% less than during the 2012-16 period, the report says.
The 2017-21 global arms transfers were, however, 3.9% more than
for the 2007-11 period, it adds.
EXPORTERS
When it came to exports, the US, Russia, France, China, and
Germany accounted for nearly 77% of global arms exports
during the 2017-21 period, the report says.
While exports from France and the US went up, those from China and
Russia fell during the 2017-21 period.
The US exported nearly 108 times more arms than Russia during
2017-21, the report adds.
WHAT ABOUT INDIA’S EXPORT?
India, which was the 24th largest exporter during 2016-20 has
improved its position by one notch to 23rd in 2017-21, With a
share of just 0.2% of the global exports, far from its avowed
goal of reaching USD 5 billion by 2025.
Q. India observes National Anti-Terrorism day to mark the
death anniversary of? A) Rajiv Gandhi B) Indira Gandhi C) Lal
Bahadur Shastri D) I K Gujral

World Happiness Report

the World Happiness Report 2022 was published by the United
Nations Sustainable Development Solutions Network.

▪ This year marks the 10th anniversary of the World Happiness

Report.
What is the World Happiness Report

▪ Published since 2012, the World Happiness Report is based on

two key ideas:
o Happiness or life evaluation measured through opinion
surveys and
o Identifying key elements that determine well-being and life
evaluation across countries.
▪ The report usually ranks 150 countries based on several factors
such as real GDP per capita, social support, healthy life
expectancy, freedom to make life choices, generosity and
perceptions of corruption. This year, the report ranked 146
countries.
▪ Every year, each variable measures a populated-weighted
average score on a scale of 0-10 that is tracked over a period of
time and further compared with other countries.
▪ This year, countries which ranked in the top 10 last year,
moved upwards and downwards.
▪ Top Performers:
o Finland has been named the world's happiest country for
the fifth year running followed by Denmark.
o The biggest gains in happiness have taken place in Serbia,
Bulgaria and Romania.
▪ Worst Performers:
 o Afghanistan was ranked as the unhappiest
nation, followed by Lebanon, Zimbabwe, Rwanda and
Botswana, respectively.
▪ India’s Performance:
o India saw a marginal improvement in its ranking,
jumping three spots to 136, from 139 a year ago.
UN Sustainable Development Solutions Network

▪ The SDSN, launched in 2012, mobilises global scientific and

technological expertise to promote practical problem solving for
the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the Paris
Climate Agreement.
▪ It was established under the auspices of the United Nations
Secretary-General.
▪ The SDSN and the Bertelsmann Stiftung have been publishing
the annual Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) Index &
Dashboards Global Report since 2016.
International Happiness Day

o It is celebrated every year on 20th March to highlight the

importance of happiness in the diurnal lives of people.
o The United Nations started to celebrate the International
Day of Happiness in 2013 but a resolution for the same
was passed in July, 2012.
• This resolution was first initiated by Bhutan which
emphasised on the importance of national happiness over
national income since the early 1970s, thereby adopting
the Gross National Happiness (GNH) over Gross
National Product (GNP).

• Gross National Happiness: The phrase ‘gross

national happiness’ was first coined by the 4th King
of Bhutan, King Jigme Singye Wangchuck, in
1972.
• The concept implies that sustainable
development should take a holistic
 approach towards notions of progress and give
equal importance to non-economic aspects of
wellbeing.
• GNP is the total value of all finished goods and
services produced by a country's citizens in a given
financial year, irrespective of their location.

Climate Change Performance Index

India ranked 10th (CCPI) 2021. India, for the second time in a
row, continued to remain in the top 10.

▪ Last year, India had been ranked at the ninth position.

▪ Published by: Germanwatch, the New Climate
Institute and the Climate Action Network annually
since 2005.
 ▪ Aim: It aims to enhance transparency in international climate
politics and enables comparison of climate protection efforts and
progress made by individual countries.
This is the second time in a row that the USA (ranked last), which
is the largest historical polluter, is ranked at the bottom.
▪ China, which is the biggest current emitter of greenhouse
gases, is ranked at the 33rd position on the CCPI 2021
report.

CCPI 2022 – Key Findings

• Denmark is the highest-ranked country in CCPI

2022, followed by Sweden and Norway at the fourth and fifth
position respectively
• India grabbed the 10th position this year
• Performance by G20:
o Four countries were among the high-performing countries
– United Kingdom (7th), India (10th), Germany (13th), and
France (17th)
o 11 countries receive a low or very low overall rating
o Saudi Arabia, which ranked at the 63rd position was the
worst-performing G20 country
• Performance by EU:
o Overall, the EU drops six places from last year, to now rank
22nd, and no longer is among the high performers
o Denmark and Sweden are the best-performing EU
countries
o Slovenia (50th), Czech Republic (51st), Poland (52nd), and
Hungary (53rd) were the worst performers in EU with
a very low rating

Indicators of Climate Change Performance Index

There are four main categories based on which the performance of the
countries are evaluated. These include:

• Green House Gas Emissions

• Renewable Energy
 • Energy Use
• Climate Policy
The countries’ commitments under the Paris Agreement are still
insufficient: to limit global warming to a maximum of 1.5°C a more
ambitious climate action is urgently needed. With CCPI, countries are
able to compete and compare the different indicators and scrutinize
their own performance and sectors of improvement.
Discussed below are the four category-wise results based on CCPI
2022.

• Green House Gas Emissions

o The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a sharp, globally
unrepresented 5.4% drop in CO2 emissions
o The performance of G20 was slightly improved with the
edition of two more countries in the very high overall
ratings for Green House Gas emissions
o Seven G20 countries received a very low rating for
their performance, including the Russian Federation,
Australia, the United States, and Canada
o EU rated medium for its overall performance and in all
indicators in the GHG Emissions category

• Renewable Energy
o Renewable energy capacity continues to grow at a record
pace, despite the effects of the COVID-19 pandemic
o In 2020, 260 GW of renewable energy capacity was
installed globally, which accounted for 81% of the total
electricity capacity added
o Norway is the first country, receiving a very high
rating in this category
o India joins Brazil, Indonesia, and Turkey as the only
G20 countries rating high in the Renewable Energy
category

• Energy Use
o Mexico, Brazil, the United Kingdom, Argentina, and India
receives a high rating
 o Malta and Greece are the only two EU countries that
ranked high

• Climate Policy
o France, China, the United Kingdom, and India are under the
18 countries earning a high rating
o With Luxembourg and Denmark, two EU countries lead the
Climate Policy ranking

India’s Status in CCPI 2022

India maintains its strong performance from last year’s CCPI, holding
10th place. India’s performance was rated high in the GHG Emissions,
Energy Use, and Climate Policy categories, and medium in Renewable
Energy.
The experts also stress India’s ambitious renewable energy policies,
such as its targets of renewable electricity capacity of 450 GW and a
30% electric vehicle share by 2030.
Although India receives an overall high performance, the experts
argue that the country should set an explicit net zero target for 2050
and leverage its domestic success on renewables and emissions
intensity into international initiatives.

Global Gender Gap Report 2021: WEF

India has fallen 28 places in the World Economic Forum’s (WEF)
Global Gender Gap Report 2021.

▪ Beti Bachao Beti Padhao, One Stop Centre (OSC) Scheme,

Ujjawala Scheme are some the initiatives launched by the
government to address the issue of gender inequality.
▪ Further, the principle of gender equality is enshrined in
the Indian Constitution in its Preamble, Fundamental
Rights, Fundamental Duties and Directive Principles.
▪ Global Gender Gap Report: It was first published in
2006 by the WEF. It benchmarks 156 countries on their
progress towards gender parity in four dimensions:
 Economic Participation and Opportunity, Educational
Attainment, Health and Survival and Political
Empowerment.
▪ Over the Index, the highest possible score is 1 (equality)
and the lowest possible score is 0 (inequality).
Aim:
To serve as a compass to track progress on relative gaps
between women and men on health, education, economy and
politics. Through this annual yardstick, the stakeholders within each
country are able to set priorities relevant in each specific economic,
political and cultural context.
India’s Position:
Overall Ranking: India is now one of the worst performers in
South Asia, it is now ranked 140 among 156 countries.
In South Asia, Bangladesh ranked 65, Nepal 106, Pakistan 153,
Afghanistan 156, Bhutan 130 and Sri Lanka 116.
India had ranked 112th among 153 countries in the Global
Gender Gap Index 2020.
Political Empowerment:
India has declined on the political empowerment index as well
by 13.5 percentage points, and a decline in the number of women
ministers, from 23.1% in 2019 to 9.1% in 2021.
However, it has still performed relatively well compared to other
countries, ranking at 51 in women’s participation in politics.
Education Attainment:
In the index of education attainment, India has been ranked at
114.
Economic Participation:
The report notes that the economic participation gender gap
actually widened in India by 3% this year.
The share of women in professional and technical roles declined
further to 29.2%.
The share of women in senior and managerial positions also is at
14.6% and only 8.9% firms in the country have top female
managers.
The estimated earned income of women in India is only one-
fifth of men’s, which puts the country among the bottom 10
globally on this indicator.
In Pakistan and Afghanistan, the income of an average woman is
below 16% of that of an average man, while in India it is 20.7%.
Health and Survival index:
On this India has fared the worst, ranking at 155.
The only country to have fared worse is China.The report points to a
skewed sex ratio as the major factor.
It says the ratio can be attributed to norms of son preference and
gender-biased prenatal sex-selective practices.
China and India together account for about 90 to 95% of the
estimated 1.2 to 1.5 million missing female births annually
worldwide due to gender-biased prenatal sex selective practices.
 ▪ Global Scenario: Region Wise Rank:
South Asia incidentally is one of the worst performing
regions, followed only by the Middle East and northern
Africa.
Largest Gender Gap in Political Empowerment:
The gender gap in political empowerment remains the largest:
women represent only 26.1% of some 35,500 parliament seats and
just 22.6% of over 3,400 ministers worldwide.
In 81 countries, there has never been a woman head of state, as of
15th January, 2021.
Bangladesh is the only country where more women have held
head-of-state positions than men in the past 50 years.
The countries with the largest gender gaps in economic
participation include Iran, India, Pakistan, Syria, Yemen, Iraq, and
Afghanistan.
World Economic Forum

▪ The World Economic Forum is the International

Organization for Public-Private Cooperation.
▪ It was established in 1971 as a not-for-profit foundation
and is headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland. It is
independent, impartial and not tied to any special interests.
▪ The Forum strives in all its efforts to demonstrate
entrepreneurship in the global public interest while upholding
the highest standards of governance.
▪ Some major reports published by WEF are:

o Energy Transition Index.

o Global Competitiveness Report.
o Global IT Report - WEF along with INSEAD, and
Cornell University publishes this report.
o Global Gender Gap Report.
o Global Risk Report.
o Global Travel and Tourism Report.