Current Affairs

GDP growth slumps to 5.8%

• Unemployment rate at 45-year high
• India’s GDP grew at 5.8% in the January-March 2019 quarter, dragging down the full year growth to a fiveyear low of 6.8%. The unemployment rate in the country rose to a 45-year high of 6.1% in 2017-18, as per official data released on the first day of the second term of the Modi government.
• Addressing a press conference on Friday, Economic Affairs Secretary Subhash Chandra Garg said the slowdown, caused by temporary factors such as liquidity crunch, is likely to continue in the April-June 2019 quarter, with the demand picking up from the second quarter onwards.
• ‘Temporary factors’
• “Slowdown in the fourth quarter GDP was due to temporary factors, like stress in the NBFC sector affecting consumption finance. The first quarter of the current fiscal will also see relatively slower growth. From the second quarter onwards, we expect the growth and consumption to pick up,” Mr. Garg said.
• Asked about India losing the fastest growing nation tag to China with a quarterly growth of 5.8%, Mr. Garg, who is also the Finance Secretary, said, “Quarterly numbers don’t matter…it is basically annual growth… At 6.8% annual growth, India is still the fastest growing nation… China is still lower.”
• During the year, the slowdown in the economy was led by sluggish growth in the agriculture, forestry and fishing sector (2.9% growth), the mining sector (1.3% growth) and in manufacturing (6.9%).
• The sectors which saw growth rate of over 7% were public administration, defence and other services, construction, financial, real estate and professional services, and electricity, gas, water supply and other utility services.
• The unemployment data, which was released a day after Prime Narendra Modi took oath for the second term, confirms an earlier leaked version of this survey that claimed that joblessness was at a 45-year high.
• “It is a new design and a new matrix. It would be unfair to compare it with the past. This 45-year high is your interpretation. I don’t want to claim that it is 45-year low or high,” Statistics Secretary Pravin Srivastava told the media.
• The S-400 Triumf (NATO reporting name: SA-21 Growler), previously known as the S-300 PMU-3,is an anti-aircraft weapon system developed in the 1990s by Russia's Almaz Central Design Bureau as an upgrade of the S-300 family. It has been in service with the Russian Armed Forces since 2007. The S-400 uses four missiles to fill its performance envelope: the very-long-range 40N6 (400 km), the long-range 48N6 (250 km), the medium-range 9M96E2 (120 km) and the short-range 9M96E (40 km). The S-400 was described by The Economist in 2017 as "one of the best air-defence systems currently made"
• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world. The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• ICMR’s 26 national institutes address themselves to research on specific health topics like tuberculosis, leprosy, cholera and diarrhoeal diseases, viral diseases including AIDS, malaria, kala-azar, vector control, nutrition, food & drug toxicology, reproduction, immuno-haematology, oncology, medical statistics, etc. Its 6 regional medical research centres address themselves to regional health problems, and also aim to strengthen or generate research capabilities in different geographic areas of the country.
•  The Indian Journal of Medical Research is published under the auspices of the council.
• National Centre for Laboratory Animal Science, (NCLAS) Hyderabad
• Food and Drug Toxicology Research Centre, (FDTRC) Hyderabad
• National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research, (NARF-BR) Hyderabad
• National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis (NIRT), Chennai
• National Institute of Epidemiology (NIE), Chennai
• National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research (NICPR), Noida
• National Institute of Malaria Research (NIMR), Delhi
• Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna
• National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health (NIRRH), Mumbai
• National Institute of Virology (NIV), Pune
• National Institute of Traditional Medicine (NITM), Belagavi
• Microbial Containment Complex (MCC), Pune
• National AIDS Research Institute (NARI), Pune
• National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmedabad
• National Institute of Pathology (NIP), Delhi
• National Institute of Medical Statistics (NIMS), Delhi
• Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC), Pondicherry
• National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases (NICED), Kolkata
• National Institute for Research in Tribal Health (NIRTH), Jabalpur
• National Center for Disease Informatics and Research (NCDIR), Bengaluru
• Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Center, (BMHRC), Bhopal
• National Institute for Research in Environmental Health (NIREH), Bhopal
• National JALMA institute for Leprosy & Other Mycobacterial Diseases, Agra
• Centre for Research in Medical Entomology (CRME), Madurai
• National Institute of Immunohaemotology (NIIH), Mumbai
• Enterovirus Research Centre (ERC), Mumbai
• Genetic Research Centre, Mumbai
• Desert Medicine Research Centre (DMRC), Jodhpur
• Regional Medical Research Center, Port Blair
• Regional Medical Research Center, Bhubaneswar
• Regional Medical Research Centre, Dibrugarh
• ICMR Virus Unit, Kolkata
• The Viral Research & Diagnostic Laboratories (VRDL) scheme was introduced by Department of Health Research - Indian Council of Medical Research as outbreaks of Viral agents is very common in India
• Delivery of services should be robust now, cutting red tape
• Technology is the best help
• Move away from subsidy schemes
• India an emerging data economy but lacks technological framework
• Need for a simple startup regulatory framework
• Needs to set up India First investment agency
• Odd labour laws
• Govt jobs settlement
• More privatisation
• Focus shd be on execution & delivery