23 DECEMBER 2014: Pravasi Bhartiya Divas 2015 @ Gandhingr

Ø  Fertility is falling faster than expected in India, and the country is on track to reach replacement levels of fertility as soon as 2020, new official data shows. The 2013 data for the Sample Registration Survey (SRS), conducted by the Registrar General of India, the country’s official source of birth and death data, was released. The SRS shows that the Total Fertility Rate – the average number of children that will be born to a woman during her lifetime – in eight States has fallen below two children per woman. Just nine States – all of them in the north and east, except for Gujarat – haven’t yet reached replacements levels of 2.1, below which populations begin to decline. West Bengal now has India’s lowest fertility, with the southern States, Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh. Among backward States, Odisha too has reduced its fertility to 2.1.

Ø  The 13th edition of the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas will be held in Gujarat from January 7 to 9. Gujarat has been chosen as the partner State as 2015 happens to be the 100th year of Mahatma Gandhi’s return to India from South Africa, External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj has said.

Ø  Even as Vistara is getting ready to take off on January 9, it plans to start international operations as and when the government decides to do away with 5/20 rule, which mandates a carrier to be five-year-old and have at least 20 aircraft in its fleet before being allowed to serve the international market.

Ø  India’s infant mortality rate (IMR) has fallen to 40 deaths per 1,000 live births and 49 deaths under the age of 5 for every 1,000 live births, but at these rates it is unlikely to meet its Millenium Development Goals for 2015, according to the Sample Registration Survey. IMR has fallen faster in rural areas than in urban areas. Among metro cities, Chennai has the lowest IMR (16). Among States, Kerala has by far the best – at 12 deaths per 1,000 live births; the next best States, Delhi and Maharashtra, have IMRs that are twice that of Kerala.

Ø  Pakistan plans to execute around 500 militants in coming weeks, after the government lifted a moratorium on the death penalty in terror cases following a Taliban school massacre.