[‘Daily News Updates’ will provide you with a simplified understanding of the important economic/financial events across the country]
Population Control in Assam and Uttar Pradesh- What has been proposed?
Both the Uttar Pradesh Government and the Assam Government are in the process of introducing population control bills in their states. The basic premise of the law is that couples with more than two children will not be able to avail of Government benefits and positions.
In Uttar Pradesh, the law has “provisions to debar contestants with more than two children from local polls, and prevent applicants from applying for or getting promotion in government jobs, and receiving any kind of government subsidy.” The draft bill has provisions for public servants as well; it says that public servants will get two additional increments during their service, maternity/paternity leave of twelve months with full salary, etc. The Government will also introduce a subject related to population control in schools.
In Assam, CM Himanta Biswa Sarma had said that the limitations under the proposed law would not apply to central Government schemes, but they will be gradually extended to state Government schemes. However, members of the SC/ST community will be exempted from the laws. In 2017, the Assam Government had introduced the Population and Women Empowerment Policy that mandated Government officials to follow the two-child norm.
While many advocate for population control measures citing the lack of resources in the country, others oppose the same, arguing that India’s population growth rate has already slowed down and is expected to decrease further in the coming years, and such measures will be counter-productive. In a study published by The Lancet last year, it was predicted that India’s Total Fertility Rate (TFR) would fall to 1.29 by 2100 from 2.14 in 2017. Further, it predicted that India’s population would peak at 160 crores in 2048 but decline to 109 crores in 2100. [Simply stated, TFR refers to the number of children born to each woman on average. Further, ‘Replacement Level’ refers to the TFR, which can sustain the current population level. Globally, the replacement level is considered to be 2.1, which means if the TFR of the country is 2.1, the newborn babies will replace the previous generation exactly. When TFR falls below the replacement level, the population will decline].
Fuel Demand in India increases again as lockdown is eased
As reported by the Mint, ‘Fuel consumption rose 1.5 percent to 16.33 million tonnes in June from a year earlier and by 8 percent over May 2021.’ Among fuels, petrol sales increased 5.6 percent from June last year and 21% from May 2021 to 2.4 million tonnes. Similarly, diesel sales increased 12% from May but decreased 1.5% from June 2020 to 6.2 million tonnes. This is the first increase from the previous month since March. In May, fuel consumption had slumped to a nine-month low due to the lockdown. [Other fuels include LPG, jet fuel, naphtha, bitumen, etc.].
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