Recently the Minister of State for Health, informed Parliament that 43 new medical colleges have been established and 11,682 MBBS seats along with 8,967 postgraduate seats have been approved for the 2025-26 academic year.
Structural Deficits in India’s Health System
Massive Specialist Vacancies: According to Health Dynamics of India 2022–23, rural Community Health Centres (CHCs) face a specialist vacancy rate of nearly 79.9%.
Only 4,413 specialists are available against the requirement of 21,964 specialists.
According to data released by the National Crime Records Bureau (NCRB), 13,396 cases were registered under crimes against women and 7,662 under crimes against children in 2024.
Major Findings
The overall crime rate in India declined by 6% in 2024 compared with 2023 but there was an increase of over 17% in cybercrime cases.
Crimes Against Women: Declined 1.5%, with a rate of 64.6 per lakh population, down from 66.2.
Recently, Delhi Police aims to modernise policing through Artificial Intelligence (AI), predictive policing, digital surveillance, community participation, and institutional accountability.
Reasons For Police Modernisation
Colonial Rule: India’s policing system largely continues to operate within structures inherited from the Police Act of 1861, enacted during colonial rule.
Rising Complexity of Crime: Modern crimes include cybercrime, organised crime, financial fraud, terrorism, and narcotics trafficking.
A recent working paper from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) has highlighted how India’s public administration digitalization reforms have improved productivity in micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs).
Major Highlights
The business environment reforms undertaken in India between 2010-11 and 2014-15 were mainly through digitalisation of business-related public administration.
The paper lists reforms into six areas: tax systems, construction permits, environment and labour compliance, inspections, commercial disputes and single-window clearances.
Recently, the Chief Economic Advisor (CEA) has highlighted the growing role of inland waterways as a resilient and strategic component of India’s logistics framework.
About Inland Waterways
Inland Water Transport (IWT) refers to the movement of goods and passengers through rivers, canals, backwaters, and creeks.
These are cost-effective, energy-efficient, and environmentally sustainable, making them ideal for bulk cargo transport.
India has over 14,500 km of navigable waterways, with 111 National Waterways declared under the National Waterways Act, 2016.
The Supreme Court has asked the Union government to amend the abortion law to remove the time limit on medical termination of unwanted pregnancies in the case of minor rape victims.
About
The court made the observation while refusing to entertain a curative petition filed by the government against a recent decision of the court allowing a 15-year-old rape survivor to terminate a 30-week pregnancy.
The court said it was not for the doctors or the state to choose what was best for the rape surivor.
