Books and Authors - Current Affairs for September, 2017

Dr. Mahesh Sharma, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Culture released the book entitled “Bhartiya Kala Mein Salil Kridayen Evam Sadyahsnata Nayika”. It was authored by Dr. Kshetrapal Gangwar and Shri Sanjib Kumar Singh at a function in National Museum. This is an Art Book based on original research, written in Hindi and published by National Museum after few decades. Shri Santosh Kumar Gangwar, Minister of State (Independent charge) for Labour and Employment presided over the function. This is a book written to highlight the Indian Art and describes the Water Sports (Salil Kridayen). This form of art has been the part of Indian Art from time immemorial. The literary sources and archaeological evidence proves that it was a dear subject for the artist and Literary persons. Almost all the famous school of art of India bears these kind of sculptures and Paintings.

NITI Aayog has developed a Handbook of State Statistics that consolidates key statistics across sectors for every Indian State/UT.

While the State data on crucial indicators is currently fragmented across different sources, this handbook provides a one-stop database of important State statistics.

Starting with Gross State Domestic Product (GSDP), the handbook provides sectorial compositions of State economies from 1980-81 to the latest possible year.

Five different GSDP series are available between 1980-81 and now, and this database covers all of them.

It covers statistics on State government finances from 1981 to 2017across indicators such as gross fiscal deficits, revenue deficits, social sector expenditure, capital expenditure etc.

Labour statistics from the national sample surveys (NSS), statistics on labour force participation rates (LFPR), worker-population ratio (WPR) by industry and unemployment rates are also presented.

Data on education covers primary, secondary and tertiary levels including enrolment ratios, schools, enrolment, teachers and performance indicators, among others.

Some of the health indicators covered by the handbook include infant mortality rate (IMR), birth rates, life expectancy, sex ratio at birth, immunisation and institutional deliveries among others.

For certain indicators such as IMR, TFR, birth rates, data from 1971 onwards to 2015 is available.

For other indicators the data series starts in 2005.

Data in the Handbook: Know More

• The final section of the publication provides state-wise estimates of poverty numbers. Data has been presented according to the Lakdawala Methodology (data from 1973-74 to 2004-05) and the Tendulkar Methodology (data from 1993-94 to 2011-12).
• Data is quinquennial, as estimates for poverty are derived from NSS Household Consumption Surveys.