October 21, 2024
Table of contents:
- All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) for 2021-22
- 2. Indian Railways Stress Factors
- All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) for 2021-22:
- NABARD has recently published All India Rural Financial Inclusion Survey (NAFIS) for 2021-22.
- The data includes 1 lakh rural households, and their economic as well as financial indicators.
Key Findings:-
- Increase in average monthly income: The average monthly income of households saw a substantial rise of 57.6% within a spam of five years.
- The average monthly income of all households stood at Rs. 12,698.
- Notably agriculture household shows slightly more earnings (Rs.13661) as compared to the non-agriculture households(Rs.11,438).
- For agricultural households, cultivation was the main source of income, contributing about almost one – third of the monthly earnings.
- Increase Income Cultivation and animal husbandry:
- Income from farming activities rose from 43.1% to over 45% in 2021-22.
- Rise in Average Monthly Expenditure: The average monthly expenditure of rural households rose significantly from Rs. 6,646 in 2016-17 to Rs. 11,262 in 2021-22.
- Notably, the survey also shows increase in annual average financial savings of households increase to RS.13,209 in 2021 from 9,104 in 2016 – 17. Almost 66% households reported saving money in 2021-22.
- Kisan Credit Card (KCC): Around 44% of agricultural households were found to have a valid KCC. The Kisan Credit Card (KCC) scheme is a credit scheme introduced in August 1998 by Indian public sector banks to issue kisan credit card to the farmers of India. This model scheme was prepared by the NABARD on the recommendations of the R. V. Gupta Committee to provide advances for agricultural needs).
Positive Aspects:
- Increase in agriculture participation.
- Least affected sector during the COVID pandemic ensuring a livelihood to many specially in the rural households when all other sectors were majorly affected.
Negative Aspects:
- Apart from the agriculture a major shortage of jobs were seen in other sectors.
- In spite being the most dependent sector agriculture is stiil the low wage and informal sector.
- Over dependence of some states like Bihar, UP and Chhattisgarh resulting in almost 50% of their labor force engaging in farming practices.
2. Indian Railways Stress Factors:
- In recent times we have witnessed multiple train accidents in past few months including the Agartala-Lokmanya Tilak Express which recently took place on October 11.
Key Factors:
- As far as the train accidents are concerned we can’t deny the fact that train accidents are reduced from 1390 per year in 1960 to 40 in 2023-24.
- But still it is much higher if we compared it with the technologies that were presents in 1940s and todays time.
- Notably, 55.8% of accidents are due to human errors which clearly shows the management failures of railways.
- Technologies like ‘Kavach’ which provides a crucial safety features against collision are being slowly implemented because of it’s high cost.
- Financial challenges which is there with railways shows that railways spends as much as 98% of their earnings. It means there is not much scope for upgradation as far as technology is concerned.
About Kavach System:
- an Automatic Train Protection (ATP) system that aims to improve railway safety by preventing collisions and helping loco pilots run trains safely.
Some key features:
- Applies break whenever the loco pilot exceeds the speed limit or fails to apply breaks in time.
- Kavach uses RFID tags which helps to determine train position as well as direction and also provides collisions avoidance warnings.
- It provides real time information on signals, such as target speed and its distance.
- It automatically activates hooter as a signal of warning when approaching a level crossing.
- The testing of Kavach was started back in 2016, showing positive results and a major transformation in the railways industry.
Potential solution of train accidents:
- Proper implementation of ‘Kavach’ technology across all railway networks.
- Reviving financial conditions: This could be done through some liberal policies aiming expansion of premium services targeting the bigger crowd.
- Improving the signalling system, upgrading technologies and quality assessment are some of the practices through which train accidents could be minimize.
