-The Hindu Owing to low health insurance coverage in India, especially for the poor, households have to dip into their savings or borrow to meet hospital bills A majority of Indians did not have health insurance as of 2017-18. Coverage levels varied widely based on ‘wealth classes’. The poorest were the least covered as they mostly depended on government schemes, while the richest fared better and relied more on private insurance Abysmal coverage Among...

-Livemint.com Let’s not discredit the findings of statistical surveys that are conducted among real respondents The uncomfortable truth that emerged from the leaked report of the Consumer Expenditure Survey (CES) is that rural poverty increased substantially between 2011-12 and 2017-18 for the first time in five decades. That this happened during a period of claimed high growth should have led to more research on what went wrong. Instead, there have been attempts...

-Business Standard Scholars across the world had appealed for the survey reports, including one on household consumer expenditure. The Union government on Saturday released five sets of survey reports on key socio-economic trends, most of which were approved but withheld. The junked consumer expenditure survey was not among these. The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI) released the survey reports, ‘Household Social Consumption in India: Health’ and ‘Household Social Consumption in India:...

-The Hindu The research revealed an inverse relationship between mother's education and incidence of childhood anaemia Last month, during the festive season, an ad campaign urged Indian women to invest in iron-rich food and focus on whether they were anaemic. Around the same time, a Lancet Global Health report noted that 23% of Indian men suffered from anaemia. Adding to these findings, now a paper published in Scientific Reports points out that...

-Livemint.com * Leaked official data shows poverty is rising, but we won’t get a confirmation till at least 2023. That’s unfortunate * Neither has the government released the report of an expert panel, nor provided any evidence about the nature and extent of divergence with other administrative data On Friday, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation (Mospi) announced that the data and reports of the 75th round of the National Statistical Office...