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Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) of India reduced from 103 per 100,000 live births in 2017-19 to 97 per 100,000 live births in 2018-20, Bharati Pravin Pawar, Minister of State in the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare told the Rajya Sabha.
The numbers were reported by the latest Special Bulletin on Maternal Mortality released by the Office of Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India, which provides estimates on MMR using the sample registration system.
The overall productivity of rice crops increased by 4.16 times in 2022-23 compared to 1950-51, Narendra Singh Tomar, Union Minister of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, told the Lok Sabha.
India has made progress in improving per unit yield of various crops by deploying the high yielding climate resilient varieties through enhanced seed and varietal replacement rates, Tomar said. The productivity of rice increased to 2,781 kilogrammes/hectare in 2022-23 from 2,400 kg/ha in 2015-16, which is a 16 per cent increase.
A total of 69 less water-requiring/drought-tolerant field crop varieties have been developed from 2020-2022, which includes 17 varieties of rice, the minister said.
Locust attack is not a regular phenomenon and large-scale incursions occur in cycles of heightened activity for a couple of years followed by long periods of inactivity, Tomar told the Lok Sabha.
Locust attacks were reported in India during 2019-20 and 2020-21, when locusts migrated to India after a gap of 26 years. During 2019-20, locust incursion was reported in Rajasthan, Gujarat, Haryana, Punjab, Uttarakhand, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh and Maharashtra.
The area of degraded land in semi-arid regions was estimated at 34.85, 35.40 and 36.02 Million ha in 2003-05, 2011-13 and 2018-19, respectively, Parshottam Rupala, Union Minister for Fisheries, Animal Husbandry and Dairying told the Lok Sabha.
The estimations were reported by the Desertification and Land Degradation Atlas of India June 2021, prepared by the Space Applications Centre, which is under the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO).
Conservation of grasslands is primarily the responsibility of the state governments and Union Territories. The central government supplements the efforts taken by the state governments under its various schemes, Rupala said.
There are 322 works under the various verticals of Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY) and Road Connectivity Project for Left Wing Extremism Areas (RCPLWEA), which are pending due to environmental and forestry clearance, Sadhvi Niranjan Jyoti, Minister of State in the Union Ministry of Rural Development told the Lok Sabha.
Claims of Rs 1,30,403 crore have been paid against the premium of Rs 25,183 crore by farmers since the Pradhan Mantri Fasal Bima Yojana (PMFBY) began in 2016-17 through 2021-22, Tomar told the Lok Sabha.
PMFBY, introduced in the country during the Kharif 2016 season, is demand-driven and voluntary for states and farmers.
Comprehensive risk coverage for farmers’ crops against all non-preventable natural risks from pre-sowing to post-harvest stages of the produce at a very minimum premium for the farmers is provided under the scheme, the minister said.
The PMFBY successfully fulfils the scheme’s objectives, especially protecting the farmers in natural calamity-hit seasons, years or areas, Tomar said.
The National Cancer Registry Programme coverage in India is 16.4 per cent, Pawar told the Rajya Sabha.
There are 38 Population Based Cancer Registries (PBCRs), of which 35 PBCRs’ are located in 20 states, and 3 PBCRs are in three UTs. There are 215 Hospital Based Cancer Registries (HBCRs) across the country, Pawar said.
Indian Council of Medical Research — National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (ICMR-NCDIR) has signed MoUs for three years with the Rajasthan and Andhra Pradesh governments to set up cancer atlases in these states, the minister added.