Economic Survey 2013: Plan Outlay for Health up by 13.9 Per Cent

New Delhi: The economic survey tabled today in Parliament  by the Finance Ministry has increased the plan outlay for health up by 13.9 per cent for the year 2013-14. 


The Survey noted that the government had increased its plan outlay for health by 13.9% to Rs.30,4777 crores in 2012-13. Under the NHRM, over 1.4 lakhs Health Human Resources have been added (upto September, 2012) and under infrastructure strengthening 10,473 sub centres, 714 primary Health Centres and 245 community Health centres have been newly constructed. A sum of Rs.520 crore have been released to open 132 ANM schools and 137 general nursing and mid wifery schools in districts where there are no such schools. Opening of six Nursing colleges at the sites of AIIMS like institution at a total cost of Rs 120 crore is also under consideration. 

The survey also noted that due to Janini Suraksha Yojana, the number of institutional delivery have increased from 1.08 crores during 2005-06 to 1.75 crores during 2011-12. 

In 2012-13 under Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yogna (IGMSY), a budgetary outlay of Rs.520 crores was allocated to target over12.5 lakhs pregnant and lactating women, the survay said, adding, that the allocation of gender budgeting as a percentage of total budget have gone up from 2.8 % in 2005-06 to 5.96 in 2012-13. 

A proposal for strengthening and restructuring of the ICDS scheme within an overall budget allocation of Rs.1,23,580 crores during the XIIth Plan has been approved. Under Sabla Programme against an allocation of Rs.750 crores for 2012-13, Rs.496 crores has been released. In 2012-13 under Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yogna (IGMSY), a budgetary outlay of Rs.520 crores is outlayed to cover 12.5 lakhs pregnant and lactating women . 

The Survey points out that Janini Suraksha Yojana (JSY), Janini Shishu Suraksha Yojana (JSSK) and Indira Gandhi Matritva Sahyog Yojana (IGMSY) have many overlapping features and the same beneficiaries. This calls for a careful exercise in identifying overlapping schemes and weeding out or converging them, the survey further said. 

Highlights of Economic survey 2013:

• Economic growth pegged at 6.1-6.7% in 2013-14
• March 2013 inflation estimated at 6.2-6.6%
• Priority will be to rein in high inflation
• FDI in retail to pave the way for investment in new technology and marketing of agriculture produce
• Survey calls for widening of tax base and prioritising expenditure to bridge fiscal deficit
• Calls for curbing gold imports to contain current account deficit
• Aadhaar-based direct cash transfer scheme can help plug leakages in subsidies
• With subsidies bill increasing, danger of missing fiscal targets is real in FY13
• Survey pitches for hike in prices of diesel and LPG to cut subsidy burden.
• Foreign Exchange reserves remains steady at $295.6 billion at December, 2012-end
• At present, overall energy deficit is about 8.6 pc and peak shortage of power is about 9 pc. 
• Infrastructure bottlenecks affecting industrial sector performance
• Prospects for world trade as well as of India are still uncertain.
• Pitches for further opening of sectors for FDI

Omega-6 cooking oil increases heart ailment

 

In a recent study conducted by Dr. Christopher Ramsden, a clinical investigator with the U.S. National Institutes of Health in Washington, researchers offered a fresh analysis of data from the Sydney Diet Heart Study, which studied 458 Australian men aged 30 to 59 with a history of cardiovascular disease for more than three years."The group that was fed Omega-6 from Safflower oil, they had increased risk of death from all causes as well as death due to coronary heart disease and death due to cardiovascular disease" said study author Dr. Christopher Ramsden.

New Delhi: Since long the health monitoring bodies have allowed companies to put health messages on their labels saying that replacing saturated fats with poly-unsaturated fat Omega-6 rich vegetable oils help lower cholesterol. But in a story carried widely on CBC-TV's The National, this theory has been trashed.


Dr. Ramsden speculated that having more omega-6 in the diet could promote oxidation and inflammation in the arteries.

Nutrition professor Richard Bazinet, who studies fatty acids at the University of Toronto said this week's study in the British Medical Journal suggesting that omega-6s may borderline increase heart attack risk, needs to be publicized for public safety.

Dr. Artemis Simopoulos, President of the Centre for Genetics, Nutrition and Health in Washington advised "The goal should be to consume a balanced amount of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids". She added "We should lower the intake of omega-6 rich oils such as corn oil, sunflower, safflower, cottonseed oil, including soybean," Dr. Simopoulos said. "Increase the amount of omega-3 fatty acids in our diet, which can be obtained from oils that are rich in omega-3s such as flaxseed oil, Canola oil."

For consumers, the subtle and shifting messages can be confusing. Dr. Bazinet advises reading labels carefully". Like Simopoulos, he said "flax and canola are the safer options and people might want to stay away from the straight safflower, corn and sunflower oils that typically make up five per cent of purchases".
In India, the most widely sold cooking oils like Safflower (Saffola), Soyabean, Sunflower, Cottonseed contain very high Omega-6 fats. It would be in the interest of the consumers to look at better options like Canola Oil that has high Omega-3 and the right ratio of Omega-3:6 ratio (1:2).

When we spoke to Dr. Anoop Mishra, HoD of Diabetes and Metabolic Diseases, Fortis Hospital, he added "I would rate Canola Oil as no. 1 amongst all available cooking oils in India". In a teleconversation with Jivo Wellness who are the largest sellers of Canola Oil in India we learnt that lakhs of consumers have been shifting to Canola Oil primarily due to the health benefits offered like lowest bad saturated fats, high Omega-3, best ratio of Omega-3:6. With rising medical costs, it is felt that Good health comes at a low cost if we use our choices carefully.