17-Jun-2023: Visit to Uruguay of Indian Parliamentary Goodwill Delegation led by Shri Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs
At the invitation of President of House of Representatives (Lower House) of the Parliament of Oriental Republic of Uruguay, Shri Pralhad Joshi, Minister of Parliamentary Affairs, Coal & Mines led a 10-member Parliamentary Goodwill Delegation to Uruguay from 14-17 June 2023 with the objective of strengthening and deepening of bilateral relations between two democracies.
The multi-party delegation comprised nine Members of Parliament from both chambers; six from Lok Sabha including Shri Sanjay Seth, Smt. Gomati Sai, Shri Hemant Patil, Shri CN Annadurai, Dr Gurumoorthy Maddila and Ms. Chandrani Murmu as well as Ms. Indu Bala Goswami, Shri Dineshchandra Avavadiya and Shri Neeraj Dangi from Rajya Sabha. It also included Shri G Srinivas, Secretary, Ministry of Parliamentary Affairs. The delegation was received by Shri Dinesh Bhatia, Ambassador of India to Argentina and Uruguay on 14 June who briefed the delegation about the country and growing importance of its bilateral relations with India.
17-Mar-2021: Connectivity is an important element of Act East Policy: Dr. Jitendra Singh
Union Minister of State (Independent Charge) Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER), MoS PMO, Personnel, Public Grievances, Pensions, Atomic Energy and Space, Dr. Jitendra Singh said that Connectivity is an important element of Act East Policy. In a written reply to a question in the Lok Sabha today, he said, efforts in this direction include Agartala-Akhaura Rail Link between India and Bangladesh, Intermodal transport linkages and inland waterways through Bangladesh, Kaladan Multimodal Transit Transport Project and the Trilateral Highway Project connecting the North East with Myanmar and Thailand. Under India-Japan Act East Forum, projects such as Road and Bridges and modernization of Hydro-electric power project have been undertaken. Among other initiatives assistance has been extended in the form of medicines/medical supplies to ASEAN countries during the pandemic. Scholarships with offer of 1000 PhD fellowships have been offered at IITs for ASEAN countries participants. India is also implementing Quick Impact Projects in Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar and Vietnam to provide development assistance to grass-root level communities in the fields of education, water resources, health etc.
The ‘Act East Policy’ announced in November, 2014 is the upgrade of the “Look East Policy” which was promulgated in 1992. It aims at promoting economic cooperation, cultural ties and develop a strategic relationship with countries in Indo-pacific region with a proactive and pragmatic approach and thereby improving the economic development of North Eastern Region (NER) which is a gateway to South East Asia Region. The policy has been continuously evolving since early 1990s and involves intensive and continuous engagement with South East Asian countries in the field of connectivity, trade, culture, defence and people-to-people-contact at bilateral, regional and multilateral levels.
17-Jan-2020: Chinese birth rate falls to lowest in seven decades
China's birth rate has fallen to its lowest since the formation of the People's Republic of China 70 years ago - despite the easing of the much criticised one-child policy.
The birth rate was 10.48 per 1,000 in 2019 - the lowest since 1949, as per the National Bureau of Statistics. The number of babies born in 2019 dropped by 580,000 to 14.65 million.
The country's birth rate has been falling for years - posing a challenge for the world's second-biggest economy. Despite the birth rate falling, a lower death rate meant China's population hit 1.4bn in 2019, inching up from 1.39bn. But the falling birth rate is raising fears of a "demographic timebomb" - that is, a smaller working-age population having to support a bigger, retired population.
China's birth rate is lower than the US, which stood at 12 per 1,000 people in 2017 (the most recent data available), but higher than Japan's figure of 8. The overall global birth rate was 18.65 in 2017, according to the World Bank.
In 1979, the Chinese government introduced a nationwide "one-child policy" - with various exceptions - to slow population growth. Families that violated the rules faced fines, loss of employment and sometimes forced abortions. But the policy has been blamed for a severe gender imbalance - with males still outnumbering females by more than 30 million in the 2019 figures.
In 2015, the government ended its one-child policy, allowing couples to have two children. But that reform has failed to reverse the country's falling birth rate - despite a two-year increase immediately afterwards. Experts say this is because the relaxing of the policy did not come with other relevant changes that support family life - such as monetary support for child care and increased paternity leave. Most people can't afford more than one child.
China's one-child policy: Introduced in 1979, the policy meant that many Chinese citizens - around a third, China claimed in 2007 - could not have a second child without incurring a fine. In rural areas, families were allowed to have two children if the first was a girl. Other exceptions included ethnic minorities and - since 2013 - couples where at least one was a single child. Campaigners say the policy led to forced abortions, female infanticide and the under-reporting of female births. It was also implicated as a cause of China's gender imbalance.