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Government Health Expenditure was 1.28 per cent of gross domestic product (GDP) in 2018-19, rising to 1.9 per cent in 2023-24 according to the Economic Survey 2023-24, Prataprao Jadhav, minister of state in the Union ministry of health and family welfare, told the Lok Sabha. The government aims to increase public health spending to 2.5 per cent of GDP by 2025, as outlined in the National Health Policy 2017.
World Health Organization’s (WHO) 2023 global tuberculosis (TB) report showed India had an estimated 326,000 paediatric (0-14 years) TB cases in 2022, Anupriya Patel, minister of state in the Union ministry of health and family welfare, told the Lok Sabha. Global estimates of paediatric TB cases are only available for 2022.
India accounted for 66 per cent of malaria cases in Southeast Asia in 2022, according to World Malaria Report (WMR) 2023 by WHO, Jagat Prakash Nadda, Union minister of health and family welfare, told the Lok Sabha. However, the central government's National Centre Vector Borne Diseases Control (NCVBDC) Annual Report 2022 stated that 176,522 malaria cases were reported in India, accounting for approximately 8.89 per cent of the estimated burden in Southeast Asia.
The Government of India has also written a letter to WHO that it has a well-organised surveillance system that collects data from all states and Union territories.
Women’s participation in Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) increased from 57.47 per cent in 2022-23 to 58.89 per cent in 2023-24, Kamlesh Paswan, minister of state in the Union ministry of rural development, told the Rajya Sabha.
The government has not received orders from states for producing electric buses, Bhupathiraju Srinivasa Varma, minister of state for heavy industries, told the Rajya Sabha.
The Union ministry of heavy industries is not involved in any business of production or manufacturing of e-Buses, Varma stated. However, the ministry formulated the Faster Adoption and Manufacturing of (Hybrid &) Electric Vehicles in India (FAME India) Scheme in 2015 to promote adoption of electric/ hybrid vehicles in India.
Phase-1 of the scheme was available until March 31, 2019, with a budget outlay of Rs 895 crore. Subsequently, Phase-II was implemented for a five-year period starting from April 1, 2019, with a total budgetary support of Rs 11,500 crore, the minister said.
Paddy stubble burning is mainly practised in the Indo-Gangetic plains of Punjab, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh due to the short window between harvesting the paddy crop and sowing the next Rabi crop, Ramnath Thakur, minister of state for agriculture and farmers welfare, told the Rajya Sabha.
To facilitate efficient ex-situ management of paddy straw in these states, provisions have been made to establish projects for the paddy straw supply chain, with financial assistance covering 65 per cent of the capital cost of machinery, up to Rs 1.5 crore. This initiative aims to create a robust supply chain for paddy straw, benefiting various end-user industries, including biomass power generation and biofuel sectors, the minister stated.
From 2018-19 to 2023-24, Rs 3,333.17 crore has been released to these states and Indian Council of Agricultural Research under this scheme. As a result, more than 37,000 custom hiring centres (CHCs) for crop residue management machines have been established and over 295,000 machines have been supplied to these CHCs and individual farmers in these states, Thakur said.
So far, during the current financial year, Rs 150 crore and Rs 50 crore have been released to Punjab and Uttar Pradesh, respectively.
According to the 3rd Advance Estimates for 2023-24, released on June 4, 2024 by central government’s department of agriculture and farmers welfare, the acreage under commercial or cash crops has increased from 18,214.19 thousand hectares in the 2021-22 agricultural year to 18,935.22 thousand hectares in 2023-24, Thakur told Rajya Sabha.
The production of commercial/cash crops (including sugarcane, cotton, jute and mesta) has also risen, from 480.69 million tonnes in 2021-22 to 484.76 million tonnes in 2023-24, the minister stated.
More than 10 percent of the total area under food grains in the country is allocated to millet farming in the 2023-24 agricultural year, according to the 3rd Advance Estimates for 2023-24, Thakur told Rajya Sabha. The area under millet cultivation has increased from 12,288.98 thousand hectares in 2021-22 to 13,085.61 thousand hectares in 2023-24.