06-10-22 Daily-Tamilnadu-TNPSC Current Affairs

Health minister Ma Subramanian on Thursday launched cultivation of the medicinal plantAshwagandha(Withania somnifera) on a 200-acre plantation inDindiguldistrict. He said Ashwagandha cultivation should be the starting point for Dindigul to become a hub of medicinal Plants.

The Rs 1,000crore medicinal plant market in the country offers enormous scope for farmers to scale up their cultivation by exploring all central government schemes. The minister said Ashwagandha is widely cultivated in states likeAndhra Pradesh, Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh

Tampcol, the state agency manufacturing siddha medicines, depends on other states for raw materials. Hence, medicinal plants grown in the state will greatly benefit Tampcol.

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.