Friday Factly 12 February 2021

General Studies-1

A study by Azim Premji University has found that 92 per cent of primary school students have lost at least one language ability from the previous year during the school closure induced by Covid-19.
82 per cent of the students in Classes 2 to 6 had lost at least one mathematical ability in the same time.

While women represent 48 per cent of our population, they constitute only 28 per cent of district court judges. Similarly, India’s 200 million Muslims represent 14 per cent of the population but only 7 per cent of lower court judges. (Development Data Lab, a US-based research organisation)

The five states in India with the highest number of children that need help for inhalant use problems are: Uttar Pradesh, 94,000; Madhya Pradesh, 50,000; Maharashtra, 40,000; Delhi,38,000; and Haryana, 35,000.

India accounts for the highest road accidents globally, with 1.5 lakh people being killed and over 3.5 lakh crippled annually

The UK accounted for 16% of India’s $53.7-billion exports to the EU in FY20. Apart from garments, India ships out gem and jewellery, pharma products, footwear and organic chemicals, among others, to the UK in large volumes.

Average freight train speed in India is 25km/hr
In 2018-19, as per the NRP, India’s Operating Ratio was 0.59 for freight and 1.92 for passenger traffic.

The Standing Committee on Labour said there is no better Scheme than the MGNREGS to provide sustainable livelihood to the unskilled workers including the inter-state migrant labourers.
Over 7 crore households (10.43 crore individuals) have already availed of the scheme and 330 crore person days have been created till February 11 during the current financial year.

The number of civil service candidates shortlisted by the Union Public Service Commission (UPSC) dropped by almost 40 per cent between 2014 and 2018, from 1,236 to 759

A recent study by RBI showed that a potato farmer gets only 28 per cent of what the consumer pays. Across all crops, the farmgate price is 40-60 per cent less than the consumer price.
Below-one-hectare cultivators accounted for 51 per cent of India’s total operational holdings in 1970-71, a share that crossed 68 per cent in the last 2015-16 Agriculture Census.

A survey commissioned by the NSDC had found that only 43% workers were looking for jobs outside of their hometowns.

India leads the global tally in suspension of Internet services over the past decade. In 2019 and 2020 alone, Internet and allied services remained suspended in India for more than 13,000 hours, with as many as 164 instances of shutdowns being enforced.
Between 2012 and 2020, Internet services were snapped 437 times, with a sharp increase in 2016. In 2018, the Internet was blacked out 134 times all over India.

Study of glacial lakes published in Nature and Climate Change last year had observed that the volume of lakes formed by the melting of glaciers jumped by 50% since 1990 as glaciers retreat due to climate change.
The shrinking of the world’s ice is now following the worst-case climate change scenario outlined by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change; a study by researchers at the University of Leeds has found that the world has lost a whopping 28 trillion tonnes of ice between 1994 and 2017.
Chinese glaciologists have projected a 43 per cent decrease in the glacial area on average by 2070, and 75 per cent decrease by the end of the 21st century at the current exponential warming rate
Certain models predict that an increase of 2 degrees Celsius by 2070 would result in 45 per cent of the present of large and medium size glaciers and 70 per cent small glaciers having an area under 10 sq km disappearing.

According to National Crime Records Bureau, 10,281 farmers had committed suicide in 2019, despite the fact that in the six years leading up to 2019-20, 10 states had announced farm loan waivers totalling Rs 2.14 lakh crore.

Andhra Pradesh has among the highest public health insurance coverage scores (71.36%, NSS 75), but still has an out-of-pocket spending share much above the national average (72.2% of total health expenditure). In contrast, Himachal Pradesh (H.P.) with a much lower public health insurance coverage (3.87%, NSS 75) has a lower out-of pocket (46.4%)

India is the world’s sixth-largest economy and is expected to become the third largest by 2030. In terms of consumption, India currently is the third largest energy consumer in the world. As per BP Energy Outlook 2020, India’s share of global energy consumption is expected to rise from 6 per cent to 8 per cent by 2030.
Natural gas is also the least carbon intensive fossil fuel and has a high hydrogen/carbon ratio. Due to this, natural gas on combustion releases up to 50 per cent less carbon dioxide than coal and 20-30 per cent less than oil. Globally, the share of natural gas in energy mix is around 24 per cent while in India its only 6 per cent.
The government has a vision of increasing the share of natural gas in energy mix from 6 per cent to 15 per cent by 2030.

More than 85 per cent of districts in Uttarakhand, which are home to at least 9 crore people, are hotspots of extreme floods and its associated events (Council on Energy, Environment and Water (CEEW)
Subsidies/Agriculture employment share