06-10-22 Daily-Punjab-PPSC Current Affairs

Punjab has collected Rs 10,604 crore as the Goods and Services Tax (GST) during the first six months of the current financial year crossing the 10,000-mark for the first time since the implementation of the GST regime.

Sharing the same, Punjab Finance, Planning, Excise and Minister Harpal Singh Cheema said that the State has seen a Growth of 22.6 percent in GST collection in the current financial year as against the same period the previous year.

He further added that during the first six months of the previous financial year, the GST collection stood at Rs 8,650 crore; whereas during the current year, the State has earned Rs 1,954 crore more, taking the total GST collection to Rs 10,604 crore.

Disclosing the GST figures for the month of September 2022, Cheema said that the State has registered a growth rate of 22 percent. He said that the GST collection for September this year was Rs 1710 crore as compared to the collection of Rs 1402 in September 2021.

States with the least per capita spend Bihar, MP and Assam in that order have very poor Health indices, which underlines that spending is necessary, but Bihar does better on most indices than many states with higher levels of spending, showing that spending alone is not sufficient. This data was culled out of the recently-releasedNational Health Accountsfor 2018-19.

It shows that often where total health expenditure is high, the bulk is borne by people out of their own pockets, as in Kerala and Maharashtra. However, in Himachal and J&K, the government accounts for more than half the total spending on health and 47% in Nadu too.

The governments share in total health spending was highest in Uttarakhand at 61% and Assam at over 55%. It was lowest in UP and Kerala at about 25%. In 2004-05, the government accounted for just 9.7% of the spending in Kerala and 13% in UP. While those Shares have risen significantly, people in these states, as also in West Bengal, continue to shoulder most of the burden of healthcare. This has been the case since 2004-05, the earliest year for which the National Health Accounts (NHA) are available.

Maharashtra, the third biggest spender on health after Kerala and Himachal Pradesh in per capita terms, also had the government accounting for barely 27% of this expenditure. Interestingly, Tamil Nadu, which has health indices similar to Maharashtra, spends much less per capita. Moreover, the government share of the total health spend expanded from just 18% in 2004-05 to almost 47% in 2018-19, thus reducing the burden on the people.

Almost all states have increased public spending on health from abysmal levels in 2004-05, with a significant jump between NHA of 2014-15 and 2018-19. Assam had the highest jump in share of public spending in the total health expenditure between 2004-05 and 2018. J&K saw the lowest increase in this period. Jharkhand and Karnataka too showed increases of 2.5 Percentage points and six percentage points, respectively.
The total health expenditure has three componentsgovernment spending, people spending out of pocket and the third is a combination of private health Insurance, expenditures by enterprises, not-for-profit institutions or NGOs and external sources or funds from outside India.

Indias maternal deaths to district-level precision, and found 70% of the 640 districts are hot spots reporting higher pregnancy-related deaths than the UN development goals.

Researchers from the International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Deonar, analysed 61.98 million live births and 61,169 maternal deaths reported between 2017 and 2020, said a paper published in PLOS Global Public Health on Tuesday. (As Census 2011 data was used, only 640 districts were considered against 773 in 2022).

Maternal mortality rate refers to deaths due to complications from childbirth or pregnancy per 1 lakh live births. TheMMRunder UNs Goals (SDG) for 2030 is 70.

The IIPS study found Arunachal Pradesh and notAssamas per the government surveys has the countrys highest MMR of 284, whileMaharashtrareported the lowest (40). Five states have MMR greater than or equal to 210. Tirap district in Arunachal has the highest MMR, while Kinnaur in Himachal has the lowest.

To promote wood inUttar Pradesh, senior officials of State Government along with cabinet minister (industrial development) Nand Gopal Gupta Nandi on Tuesday conducted a meeting with key stakeholders.

Pointing out the massive Growth achieved by Chinese government in medium-density fibrebroad (MDF), the stakeholders highlighted that China has cornered 43% of global business while India is under 0.5% at present.
The private industry stakeholders urged the government to promote agro Forestry in the state to increase the income of the farmers.