Neonatal deaths
Why in news?
- According to the National Health Mission (NHM) Madhya Pradesh has recorded the highest percentage of newborn deaths of 11.5% against the total admissions to government-run sick newborn care units (SNCUs) in the past three years across the country, a rate ominously spiralling since 2017. The country’s average is 7%.
Key factors behind deaths:
- Staff crunch, low community referrals, absence of a special neonatal transport service to health centres, reliance on units in cities as last resort and the non-availability of enough units to cater to increasing institutional deliveries had contributed to the spike in the percentage of deaths.
- As the units are located at hospitals with the delivery load of more than 3,000 infants per year, mostly in District Headquarters, transporting neonates on time is crucial as they may succumb to fatal diseases within hours.
- Although there is a dedicated service to transport pregnant women to hospitals from remote areas, there is none for neonates, who are mostly dependent on the 108 ambulance service.
- Madhya Pradesh has also recorded an abysmal sex ratio in admissions — of 663 (number of girls admitted against 1,000 boys) in the three years against the country average of 733, though its sex ratio was 931 as per the 2011 census.
- In almost three fourths of the cases relating to boys, more admissions can be attributed to the prevailing bias against the girl child in society.
Punjab Kinnow
Why in news?
- The Punjab Agri Export Corporation recently launched the ‘Punjab Kinnow’ brand at the kinnow festival in Abohar.
- This brand of kinnow, which is considered the ‘king fruit’ of Punjab, is also said to be “pesticide-free”.
Why was the ‘Punjab Kinnow’ brand launched?
- This has been done along the lines of the region-specific branding of several other fruits like the ‘Nagpur orange’ (which even has a GI tag) and ‘Australian kiwi’.
- Punjab being the largest producer of kinnow in the country, such branding will attract more consumers.
- The branding of Punjab kinnow will help boost its export.
- Punjab’s kinnow has several nutritive values including limonin, which helps control cholesterol level and has anti-cancer properties, which the consumer should be informed about.
RBI changes accounting year
Why In news?
- The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) has decided to change its accounting year from July-June to April- March.
About:
- Accordingly, the next accounting year will be a nine-month period which starts from July 2020 and ends on March 31, 2021. Thereafter, all the financial years will start from April every year, the RBI said.
- The Bimal Jalan Committee on Economic Capital Framework (ECF) of the RBI had proposed a more transparent presentation of the RBI’s annual accounts and change in its accounting year from July to June to April to March from the financial year 2020-21.
- While the RBI accounts will now be aligned with the central government accounts, experts said the change in the fiscal year could reduce the need for interim dividend being paid by the RBI. The payment of an interim dividend may then be restricted to extraordinary circumstances.