The International Migrant Stock 2019, a dataset released by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA).
It provides the latest estimates of the number of international migrants by age, sex and origin for all countries of the world.
According to the data, there are 51,54,737 international migrants represent just 0.4% of the total population of India in 2019.
The number has been consistently going down in the last 3 decades
From 75.9 lakh in 1990, to is 51.5 lakh in 2019.
Of the international migrants in India in 2019, the country of origin for 31 lakh or just over 60% was Bangladesh.
Another 21% were originally from Pakistan and 10% from Nepal.
The data encompass any person who moved across an international border, either intentionally or involuntarily.
The international migrant population across all countries is 27.2 crore, who represent 3.5% of the total global population.
Of these 27.2 crore, 1.75 crore are Indian migrants living in various countries.
The proportion of women among international migrants in India is at 48.8%.
This is higher than the 47.9% proportion of women among international migrants across countries.
Increase in global number of international migrants continues to outpace growth of the world’s population.
In 2019, regionally,
Europe hosts the largest number of international migrants (82 million), followed by
Northern America (59 million) and
Northern Africa and Western Asia (49 million).
At the country level, about half of all international migrants reside in just 10 countries, United States hosting the largest number of international migrants (51 million), equal to about 19% of the world’s total.
In terms of age, 1 out of every 7 international migrants is below the age of 20 years, 3 out of every 4 international migrants are of working age (20-64 years).
Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Gilgit Baltistan (GB)
Recently, External Affairs Minister said that one day India is expected to have a physical jurisdiction over PoK.
PoK, an area of 13,297 sq km, which was under the control of the Pakistani forces when the ceasefire line came into effect on January 1, 1949.
PoK has a population of over 40 lakh, according to a census carried out in 2017.
The capital of PoK is Muzaffarabad, a town located in the valley of the Jhelum river .
It is divided into 10 districts.
In 1963, through an agreement, Pakistan ceded to China over 5,000 sq km of J&K land under its control, in the Shaksgam area, in northern Kashmir, beyond the Karakoram.
Gilgit Baltistan is a picturesque, hilly region to the north of PoK.
The British sold it, along with the rest of J & K, to the Dogra ruler of Jammu, Gulab Singh, after defeating Sikh army in 1846, but retained controlled over the area through a lease extracted from the Maharaja.
This lease was last renewed in 1935.
In 1947, a British army officer imprisoned Maharaja Hari Singh’s governor in the region, and handed over the area for accession to Pakistan.
Gilgit Baltistan (GB) is spread over 72,871 sq km, and is five-and-a-half times the size of PoK.
But it is sparsely populated, with just under 20 lakh people.
Though both PoK and GB are ruled directly from Islamabad, neither is officially listed as the territory of Pakistan.
Pakistan has just 4 provinces: Punjab, Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (which now includes FATA), Balochistan, and Sindh.
PoK and GB are both “autonomous territories”.
Pakistan has kept this fiction going, as incorporating these areas into its map would damage its international position in the UN.
For India, on the other hand,
as per the resolution passed by Parliament in 1994,
PoK and GB are both part of the State of Jammu and Kashmir,
And Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India by virtue of its accession to India in 1947.
It also demanded that, Pakistan must vacate the areas of the Indian State of J&K, which they have occupied through aggression.
National Educational Alliance for Technology (NEAT)
NEAT is a public-private partnership scheme aims to harness technology for better learning outcomes in higher education.
This initiative under ‘Ministry of Human Resource Development’ is to provide wider access to adaptive learning technologies.
The new scheme NEAT isin partnership with companies using Artificial Intelligence.
To make learning more personalised and customised as per the learner’s requirements.
Start-ups which join the government platform must offer 25% free coupons for students from disadvantaged communities.
MHRD would act as a facilitator to ensure that the solutions are freely available to a large number of economically backward students.
It would create and maintain a National NEAT platform that would provide one-stop access to technological solutions.
NEAT will be administered by an apex committee constituted by the Ministry.
It will have an independent expert panels, being set up to evaluate and select the best EdTech solutions.
