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India jumps 19 places in Logistics Performance Index

The World Bank has recently released a Logistics Performance Index (LPI) 2016 report titled “Connecting to Complete 2016“.

Few facts:

• India has now been ranked 35 amongst 160 countries.In terms of the six-components of the LPI i.e. Customs, Infrastructure, International Shipments, Logistics Quality and Competence, Tracking and Tracing, and Timeliness.
• Improvement in India’s rank in Logistics Performance Index adequately establishes steady performance in India’s competitiveness in manufacturing and trade that also acts as one of the growth driver of Make in India Programme.

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Mukesh Ambani unveils mega Jio plans

The data as such is not important but the analysis can be helpful though.

Key points

1. Free voice calls

2. Zero roaming charges

3. 45 plans at Rs.50 per GB

4. Students to get 25% more data

5. Free data services for the first four months after the launch

6. 10 tariff plans starting at Rs 19 a day for occasional users

7. Rs 149 a month for light users, Rs 4,999 a month for heavy data users

8. To achieve 100 million customers in record time

9. “Super-affordable” handsets under the LYF brand starting at Rs 2999.

10. To be formally launched on September 5

Analysis:-

1. This may bring data revolution in India as it did in the case of mobile phones.
2. The data rate is exorbitantly high in India, most of the developed countries have a very low data cost.
3. It is ironic that in India , users are charged per GB usage, which is not a feature of developed countries.
4. This plan can help reduce the data cost thus making it affordable for all sections of society
5. Even China’s cost of data is six time lower than India, as highlighted by few reports in past.
6. Viewed from this prospect it is a great leap forward which may make internet affordable to all  and it will no more be the luxury of privileged few.

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Health Sector of India – Snapshot

Background :-

National Health Accounts (NHA) monitors the flow of resources in a country’s health system and provides detailed data on health finances. The NHA estimates for India for the financial year 2013-14 were published earlier this week, after a long void of almost a decade. The previous estimates were for the year 2004-05.

Details :-

n 2013-14, the Total Healthcare Expenditure (THE) of India was Rs. 4.5 lakh crores, which amounts to 4 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP).

The Draft National Health Policy 2015 recognises this to be a problem. It says: “Global evidence on health spending shows that unless a country spends at least 5-6 per cent of its GDP on health and the major part of it is from government expenditure, basic health care needs are seldom met.”

Of the total amount of Rs. 4.5 lakh crores, Current Health Expenditure (CHE) constituted Rs. 4.2 lakh crores (93 per cent). Rs. 31.9 thousand crore (7 per cent) went to Capital Expenditure.

Key Findings:-

1. Households continue to be the dominant contributors (73 per cent of CHE) to health finance in India. The bulk of the total money circulating in Indian healthcare – around 69 per cent – comes from Out Of Pocket (OOP) payment by households. OOP is the money which individuals pay out of their own.
2. High OOP spending is a result of abysmally low government spending on health, constituting just 1.15 per cent of GDP and 30 per cent of CHE – the lowest among the BRICS nations.
3. It has long been argued that government spending on health should increase to 2.5 per cent of GDP, a figure also envisaged by the Draft National Health Policy 2015.
4. Around 45 per cent is spent on outpatient care (including both general and special treatment) as compared to 35 per cent in inpatient care.
5. Overall, the current expenditure on curative care is estimated at Rs 3.4 lakh crores (80.4 per cent) whereas. In contrast, a meagre 9.6 per cent   – is spent on preventive care.
6. All the government-funded national health programmes such as the National Disease Control Programmes are covered under this category. However, it does not include spending on sanitation or providing access to clean drinking water.

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