The health and wellbeing of individuals in India’s Aspirational Districts have recently been the focus of a national workshop. This initiative was carried out by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare in partnership with the Ministry of Women and Child Development. In addition to this, President Trump’s announcement to withdraw from the US-Russian Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty has sparked worldwide attention. The treaty, established in 1987, aimed at restricting the production and deployment of certain types of missiles, marking an historic step towards ending the arms race between the two superpowers.
Aspirational Districts Programme
In a bid to encourage social progress, NITI Aayog, the policy think tank of the Government of India, has identified 117 districts as ‘Aspirational Districts’. The selection of these districts is based on a composite index comprising data from the Socio-Economic Caste Census, Health & Nutrition, Education and Basic Infrastructure sectors. The aim of this classification is to uplift sections of society suffering from acute deprivation and lack of basic resources.
Raising Health and Nutrition Standards
In line with this goal, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, along with the Ministry of Women and Child Development, organized a National Workshop for Orientation of District Officials on Health and Nutrition. A key component of this strategy is the strengthening of the Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) program under the Aspirational Districts Programme. To aid this effort, the e-Mitra (Mobile Integrated Toolkit RMNCH+A) app was launched. This comprehensive application collates RMNCH+A related statistics from various sources and provides a unified platform for tracking key developmental indicators.
| Fact | Detail |
|---|---|
| Number of Aspirational Districts | 117 |
| Key sectors for District selection | Socio-Economic Caste Census, Health & Nutrition, Education, Basic Infrastructure |
| Main Health program enhanced | Reproductive Maternal Newborn Child and Adolescent Health (RMNCH+A) |
| Newly launched App for the program | e-Mitra (Mobile Integrated Toolkit RMNCH+A) |
The Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty
On the international front, news has emerged about President Trump’s intention to withdraw the United States from the US-Russian Intermediate-range Nuclear Forces (INF) Treaty. This agreement was signed in December 1987 by then US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet General Secretary Mikhail Gorbachev. It imposed a ban on the possession, testing and deployment of ground-launched cruise and ballistic missiles having ranges between 500 and 5,500 kilometers. Although it covered all land-based missiles, including nuclear ones, it did not include sea-launched missiles. The main objective of this treaty was to put a halt to the arms race between these two global superpowers.
