KEY TRENDS   • According to NSS 76th Round, the major source of drinking water of the household was hand pump in the rural areas and piped water into dwelling in the urban areas. About 42.9 percent of the households in the rural areas used hand pump as the principal source of drinking water and about 40.9 percent of the households in the urban areas used piped water into dwelling as the principal...

KEY TRENDS   • During 2014-15, while procurement of foodgrains (rice and wheat) increased from 56.9 million tonnes to 60.2 million tonnes, offtake of foodgrains (rice and wheat) from the PDS decreased from 59.8 million tonnes to 55.9 million tonnes. Despite increased availability in the PDS and prevalence of high inflation in foodgrains, dependence on the PDS is reducing, suggesting that there may be issues of availability, timely availability and quality of the PDS foodgrains...