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There are a total of 143.7 million active beneficiaries of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) at present, Giriraj Singh, Union minister of rural development, told the Lok Sabha.
MGNREGA is a demand-driven scheme and a total of 2,216 million persondays have been generated this year through November 30, 2023, the minister said. This is more than the number of persondays generated in the same period in the last financial year (2,087.4 million) through November 30, 2022, Singh said.
The number of farmers’ applications under Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana grew by 33.4 per cent and 41 per cent year-on-year in 2022-23 and 2021-22, respectively, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union minister of agriculture and farmers welfare, told the Lok Sabha.
There is also a significant growth of 28.9 per cent in the number of farmer applications and 24 per cent in the area insured under the scheme in the Kharif 2023 season (through November 2023) as compared to Kharif 2022, Tomar added.
A total of 73,390 cases of Lumpy Skin Disease were reported in the country in 2023 till now, Parshottam Rupala, Union minister for fisheries, animal husbandry and dairying, told the Lok Sabha. “However, the active cases are only 16,302,” Rupala said.
Some sporadic cases of dog attacks were reported in various parts of the country. However, according to the information by the Union ministry of health and family welfare (National Centre for Disease Control), there has been a reduction in the number of dog attacks in comparison to 2018, Rupala told the Lok Sabha.
In 2018, there were 7,567,811 dog bite cases, but in 2023 through October, there were 2,477,936 such cases, the Parliament was told.
Under the Pradhan Mantri Kisan Samman Nidhi (PM-KISAN) scheme, financial aid of Rs 6,000 is transferred every year to bank accounts of farmers across the country, Tomar told the Lok Sabha. The money is transferred in three equal four-monthly installments through direct benefit transfer (DBT).
Till now, Rs 2.8 lakh crores have been transferred through DBT to more than 110 million beneficiaries, the minister said.
In 2021-22, the country had about 16,515,000 hectares of barren land, including 2,366,000 hectares in Rajasthan, according to the latest Land Use Statistics-at a Glance 2012-13 to 2021-22, Tomar told the Lok Sabha.
As per the updated Nationally Determined Contribution submitted to the United Nations Framework Convention for Climate Change, Government of India has committed to achieving 50 per cent non-fossil fuel-based installed electricity capacity by 2030, RK Singh, Union minister of power and new & renewable energy, told the Rajya Sabha.
So far, 186.46 gigawatts (GW) capacity from non-fossil fuel-based energy resources have been installed in the country as of October 31, 2023. This includes 178.98 GW renewable energy and 7.48 GW nuclear power, the minister said.
In addition, 114.08 GW of capacity is under implementation and 55.13 GW capacity is under tendering. The share of non-fossil fuel sources in India’s total installed electricity generation capacity reached 43.82 per cent as of October 31, 2023.
In India, Nipah outbreaks were reported in West Bengal (in 2001 and 2007) and in Kerala (in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2023), Satya Pal Singh Baghel, minister of state in the Union ministry of health and family welfare, told the Rajya Sabha. Nipah virus (NiV) infection is a zoonotic disease transmitted from fruit bats to humans, causing acute hemorrhagic fever.
Its natural reservoir is large fruit bats and the transmission is largely through contact with infected individuals, animals and consumption of contaminated date palm sap/juice or toddy, as well as handling contaminated fallen fruits.
Sickle cell disease is a genetic blood disease that affects the whole life of a patient. To end the disease, Sickle Cell Anaemia Elimination Mission was launched by Prime Minister Narendra Modi from Madhya Pradesh on July 1, 2023, Baghel told the Rajya Sabha.
The objectives of the mission are: The provision of affordable, accessible and quality care to all sickle cell disease patients; a reduction in its prevalence through awareness creation; targeted screening of 70 million people till 2025-26 in 0-40 age group in 278 affected districts in tribal areas; and counselling through the collaborative efforts of central ministries and state governments.
The target for screening by states was 10 million for 2022-23. Now the target for 2025-26 is 20 million people in 278 districts in 17 high-prevalence states, Baghel said.
The out-of-pocket expenditure as a percentage of Total Health Expenditure (THE) has been reduced from 64.2 per cent (2013-14) to 47.1 per cent (2019-20), as per the available National Health Accounts Estimates for India, Baghel told the Rajya Sabha.