(06 June 2022) Government Data Roundup: RBI’s annual report, NAS 2021, MCCD 2020, Road Accidents 2020 are among the data reports released recently

In the fourth edition of the ‘Government Data Roundup’, we cover RBI’s annual report, Road Accidents in India 2020, National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021, Annual Report on the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD), 2020, and monthly payroll reporting. 

In this fourth edition of Factly’s fortnightly government data roundup which is a compilation of the data released by various ministries and departments of the ‘Government of India (GoI)’ in the previous fortnight, we look at some of the important reports released across the sectors of Finance, Education, Demography, Labour & Employment, and Road Transport.  Some of the important reports released include the Reserve Bank of India’s annual report, the annual report on the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD), the National Achievement Survey report for 2021, in addition to the monthly Payroll Reporting India report. 

Provisional Estimates of Annual National Income 2021-22 and Quarterly Estimates of Gross Domestic Product for the Fourth Quarter (Q4) Of 2021-22

The National Statistical Office (NSO) in the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the Provisional Estimates of Annual National Income 2021-22 and Quarterly Estimates of Gross Domestic Product for the Fourth Quarter (Q4) Of 2021-22. These provisional estimates provide data about India’s estimated GDP growth for 2020-21 and for the last quarter, the January to March quarter of 2021-22. According to these estimates, India’s GDP growth was the lowest in the financial year during the fourth quarter from January to March with 4.1% as compared to 5.4% in the third quarter. The overall annual growth in GDP during 2021-22 is estimated at 8.7% while in 2020-21, the contracted by 6.6% due to the pandemic. 

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission Dashboard

On 30 May 2022, the National Health Authority (NHA) under the Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) launched a public dashboard for near real-time information on the flagship scheme. The ABDM dashboard has detailed information on the core registries under the mission viz; Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA) numbers, Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Health Facility Registry (HFR). Additionally, the dashboard (https://dashboard.abdm.gov.in/abdm/) also has data on the number of ABHAs created, the number of healthcare facilities and healthcare professionals registered, digital health records linked with ABHA, etc. The dashboard is updated daily. The daily and cumulative till date figures are also available, across states and at the national level. 

Reserve Bank of India’s Annual Report for 2021-22

Brief about the report 

RBI’s annual report is a statutory report of its Central Board of Directors that covers the working and functions of India’s central banking and monetary authority for the period April 2021 – March 2022, making it the first report covering the entire financial year following RBI’s transition to the new accounting year. In the 2020-21 annual report, the report covered the transition period of nine months (July 2020 – March 2021), following the decision in 2020 to change its accounting year from July-June to April-March cycle to align its financial year with that of the government. 

Key Highlights

• The impact of the Russia-Ukraine war includes an elevation in prices of crude oil, fertilizers, and metals, elevating inflation globally.
• India’s merchandise exports were US$ 421.9 billion during 2021-22, with a volume expansion of 16.6% compared to the pre-pandemic level.
• The financial saving of the household sector has increased by 3.6 percentage points to 11.5% of GNDI in 2020-21, the highest in over two decades. 
• Gross NPA ratio of scheduled commercial banks at the lowest level in six years.
• Frauds worth Rs. 60,414 crores were reported and in terms of number, a total of 9,103 frauds were reported in 2021-22. The RBI data considers frauds of Rs. 1 lakh and above only. It noted that private sector banks reported a maximum number of frauds while public sector banks contributed the maximum to the fraud amount, and a majority of the frauds were in loans portfolio. 
• The number of banking outlets in villages has gone up from 67,694 in March 2010 to 12.53 lakh by December 2020 and crossed 19 lakhs in December 2021.

Significance

The report is a significant source of data pertaining to the economy and banking sector. It has various sections including economic review, monetary policy operations, data on currency in circulation, bank frauds, financial inclusion, and detailed information on RBI’s role as a regulatory & supervisory authority.  

Road Accidents in India 2020

Brief about the report

The annual Road Accidents India report by MoRTH provides data on different facets of road accidents and analysis for the calendar year. There are ten sections in the report which contain information relating to road accidents, fatalities & causes, the performance of Million Plus Cities and initiatives taken by the Governments, among others. The data is collected by police, in a standard format prescribed under the Asia Pacific Road Accident Data (APRAD) base project.

Key Findings

• The number of road accidents in India decreased by nearly 37% from over 5.01 lakh in 2015 to over 3.66 lakh in 2020 despite the increase in the number of registered vehicles.
• The fatalities in these accidents in 2020 were over 1.31 lakh while more than 3.48 lakh were injured.
• The number of fatal accidents which involve at least one death decreased by 12.2% to 1.2 lakh, compared to nearly 1.38 lakh in 2019. It should be remembered that in 2020, the country was under a strict lockdown for months due to the pandemic and movement restrictions were imposed and hence the data for 2020 may not be useful for any trend analysis. 
• Factly has published a detailed analysis of the report.

National Achievement Survey (NAS) 2021

Brief about NAS

The NAS is a nationwide competency-based assessment that looks at learning outcomes of school children by assessing the children of classes 3, 5, 8, and 10 from both private and government schools. The exercise is expected to identify the gaps in learning outcomes so as to design and implement outcome-based interventions. The report was initially published in cycles under various schemes. However, since 2017, a new model of assessment has been rolled out. This 2021 report is the second report under the new comprehensive model. Factly’s detailed review of the survey is available here. 

Key Findings

• The survey involved the participation of more than 34 lakh students and 5 lakh teachers from 1.18 lakh schools in 720 districts from both rural and urban areas.
• For classes 3, 5, and 8, the mean score in all subjects in NAS 2021 showed a decline compared to the 2017 NAS Survey while for Class 10, except for English and Modern Indian Language, the performance of students in other subjects was poorer than that in 2017. 
• One in four schools reported that they lacked parental support. This could be because 18% of the mothers could not read and write, while 27% studied up to secondary and higher secondary levels. Only 12% of the mothers were graduates and above. 
• The survey found that about 24% of the students did not have any digital device at home while 38% faced difficulty in learning through online mode during the pandemic.

Annual Report on the Medical Certification of Cause of Death (MCCD), 2020

About the report

The report contains the statistics on causes of death obtained through the Civil Registration System (CRS) under the Registration of Births and Deaths Act, 1969. Data on medically certified causes of deaths received from each state/UT has been compiled in the report. In the 2020 report, new codes to capture deaths due to COVID-19 have been introduced following ICMR’s recommendation. State-wise data is available on medically certified deaths by age, sex, and cause of death. 

Key Findings

• A total of 18.11 lakh deaths were medically certified in India in 2020, constituting 22.5% of the total number of deaths reported at the national level in the CRS report of 2020. 
• COVID-19 was the reason behind 8.9% of the medically certified deaths, the third-highest after diseases of the circulatory system (32.1%) and diseases of the respiratory system (10%). 
• COVID-19 was the certified cause of death in 9.8% of males and 7.1% of females.
• Maharashtra (17.7%) registered the highest percentage of medically certified COVID-19 deaths followed by Manipur (15.7%), Uttar Pradesh (15%), Himachal Pradesh (13.5%), Uttarakhand (12.8%), Andhra Pradesh (12%), Punjab (11.9%) and Delhi (10.8%). Arunachal Pradesh and Lakshadweep had not reported medically certified COVID-19 deaths. 

In addition to the above-mentioned reports, the monthly Payroll Reporting in India: An Employment Perspective for the month of March 2022 was released by MoSPI. This report noted that around 14.05 lakh new members joined the ESI scheme in March 2022. The report was explained in detail in an earlier data roundup. 

Featured Image: Government Data Roundup