09-03-21 Daily-Punjab-PPSC Current Affairs

ven as the Captain Amarinder Singh-ledPunjabgovernment has been stressing on improving Health facilities, the state has been found lagging behind inmaternal healthcare, a key indicator of healthcare facilities of any state.

Though Punjab is performing at par with thenational averagebut is behind other states in maternal mortality rate (MMR), according to the latest PunjabEconomic Surveyreport.
As per the data, MMR in Punjab stands at 122 per lakh live births, which is at par with the national Average. On the other hand, Kerala has a mortality rate of 42 per lakh live birth, lowest in the country. It is followed by Maharashtra with MMR of 55 per lakh live birth, 63 in Nadu, 74 in Andhra Pradesh, 87 in Gujarat and 98 in Haryana.

In Punjab, 30.7% of all expecting mothers received all types of recommended antenatal care against the national average of 20.9%. In Kerala, as high as 61.2% of expecting mother received antenatal care, 45% in Tamil Nadu, 43.9% in Andhra Pradesh and 32.4% in Maharashtra.

To strengthening maternal healthcare, the State Government in the budget allocated Rs 65 crore for the construction of eight new maternal and child health wings at sub-divisional hospitals of Talwandi Sabo, Nabha, Patti and Derabassi and district hospitals of Muktsar and Gurdaspur, and community health centres of Bhawanigarh and Raikot. Besides, Rs 57 crore has been given for the completion of the construction work of the nine maternal and child health wings proposed in the budget for the year 2020-21.

The state fares much better than the national average and other states in terms of expenditure incurred on delivery in public health facilities. The average out of pocket expenditure per delivery in Punjab stands at Rs 1,890 against the national average of Rs 3,197. Whereas in Kerala the expenditure stands at Rs 6,901 per delivery, Rs 3,578 in Maharashtra, Rs 2,322 in Andhra Pradesh and Rs 2,136 in Gujarat.

Municipal Performance Index 2020 has been released by the Ministry of Housing and Urban Affairs (MoHUA) Highlights:

The 2020 Municipal Performance Index (MPI): MPI reviewed the sectoral performance of 111 cities in five verticals (Delhi was evaluated by NDMC and three municipal companies).

These verticals consist of 20 industries and a total of 100 indicators. The five vertical areas under MPI are service, finance, policy, technology and Governance.

City ranking:

According to the assessment framework of MPI 2020, cities are classified according to their populations of “million+” (cities with a Population of more than one million) and “population of less than one million”.

In the “Millionaire” category: Indore has become the highest-ranked , followed by Surat and Bhopal. In the “less than a million” category: The New Delhi Municipal Council has become the leader, followed by Tirupati and Gandhinagar.

For about 600 years, Mleiha was the political centre of southeast Arabia before it was abandoned in the 3rd century CE. And for decades, the emergence of the tropical plant in the arid Arabian peninsula has been aquestion archaeologistshave tried to answer. Oman, they had concluded, was the source of the ancient Arab cotton trade. But now, scientists from the Museum of Natural HISTORY in Paris have found evidence in Mleiha that the earliest cotton in the Arab region came fromnorthwest India.

The irony, however, is that a fire which ravaged one of its most important buildings of Mleiha is also what preserved it for posterity. Within this Unesco World Heritage Site in the United Arab Emirates lies a tableaux frozen in fire. Its a mud brick building with 15 rooms around a central courtyard with signs of a life hastily abandoned in forgotten objects and prized possessions carelessly thrown around, and, the evidence of an ancient Indian trade route, cotton specifically, 31 whole seeds, 79 fragments and 7 raw fibre clusters.

Maharashtra, Naduand Uttar Pradesh remained the top three states with the highest employable talent, according to the India Skills Report 2021.Karnatakatakes the fourth spot followed byAndhra Pradesh. Bangalore is among the most preferred cities to work for aspiring professionals, the report said.

Rajasthan and West Bengal come in the top 10 states with employable talent, yet remain below Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Delhi,Telanganaand Gujarat respectively. Haryana could not make it to this list again, despite the massive push from numerous Skill development measures.

The report, prepared by Wheebox in PARTNERSHIP with Taggd, CII, AICTE, AIU and UNDP, showed that 46% of the youth were considered highly employable Resources. This is far less than the previous years, indicating a skill gap in Education, it said, adding that this is still an encouraging statistic considering that the Average age of India is 26.8 years old.

More Women were found employable than men. In fact, the number of women enrolled in colleges and degree programs have increased over the past, the report said. The report is based on the assessment of 65,000 candidates.