Today's Headlines

India in Global Hunger Index-2023

GS Paper - 2 (Social Justice)

India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index-2023, which was rejected by the government as erroneous and having malafide intent. The index, released on 12 October 2023, also stated that India has the highest child wasting rate in the world at 18.7 per cent, reflecting acute undernutrition.

More about the News

1. India ranked 107th out of 121 countries in the 2022 edition of the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
2. With a score of 28.7 in the Global Hunger Index-2023, India has a level of hunger that is serious.
3. India's neighbouring countries Pakistan (102nd), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th) and Sri Lanka (60th) have fared better than it in the index.
4. South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara are the world regions with the highest hunger levels, with a GHI score of 27 each, indicating serious hunger.
5. India has the highest child wasting rate in the world, at 18.7 per cent, reflecting acute undernutrition. Wasting is measured based on children's weight relative to their height.
6. According to the index, the rate of undernourishment in India stood at 16.6 per cent and under-five mortality at 3.1 per cent.
7. The prevalence of anaemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years stood at 58.1 per cent.
8. The 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that, after many years of advancement up to 2015, progress against hunger worldwide remains largely at a standstill.
9. The 2023 GHI score for the world is 18.3, considered moderate and less than one point below the world's 2015 GHI score of 19.1.
10. Furthermore, since 2017 the prevalence of undernourishment, one of the indicators used in the calculation of GHI scores, has been on the rise, and the number of undernourished people has climbed from 572 million to about 735 million, the index said.
11. The GHI said the compounding impacts of climate change, conflicts, economic shocks, the global pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war have exacerbated social and economic inequalities and slowed or reversed previous progress in reducing hunger in many countries.

Why government rejected the report

1. The government, however, rejected the index calling it a flawed measure of 'hunger' that does not reflect India's true position.
2. 'The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues.
3. Three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population.
4. The fourth and most important indicator 'Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population' is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000.
5. The ministry said that since April 2023, the measurement data of children under five years uploaded on the Poshan Tracker has consistently increased - from 6.34 crore in April 2023 to 7.24 crore in September 2023.
6. 'The percentage of child wasting, as seen on the Poshan Tracker, has been consistently below 7.2 per cent, month-on-month, as compared to the value of 18.7 per cent used for child wasting in the Global Hunger Index 2023, the ministry said.
7. The ministry further said two other indicators, namely stunting and wasting, are outcomes of complex interactions of various other factors like sanitation, genetics, environment and utilisation of food intake apart from hunger which is taken as the causative/outcome factor for stunting and wasting in the GHI.
8. There is hardly any evidence that the fourth indicator -- child mortality -- is an outcome of hunger.

Biggest ever Ozone hole recorded

GS Paper - 3 (Environment)

Large-scale scans show that the ozone hole over Antarctica is growing larger every day. This was observed through the Copernicus Sentinel 5P Satellite, revealing that this year's ozone hole over Antarctica is one of the biggest on record, as massive as three times the size of Brazil. A hole, known as an "ozone-depleting area," reached a size of 26 million square kilometres on 16 September 2023.

 What is Copernicus Sentinel 5P satellite?

1. The Copernicus Sentinel 5P satellite, launched in October 2017, is the first satellite dedicated to monitoring our atmosphere.
2. It carries an advanced imaging spectrometer known as Tropomi, which can detect the unique "fingerprints" of different atmospheric gases across the electromagnetic spectrum.
3. Tropomi acts as an environmental detective, providing precise information about our planet's atmosphere.
4. By analyzing these fingerprints, it creates detailed images that reveal various pollutants, greatly improving our ability to monitor air quality and environmental conditions.
5. The Sentinel-5P satellite measures ozone levels and sends this data to the Copernicus Atmosphere Monitoring Service (CAMS), serving as Europe's ozone monitoring hub. CAMS quickly processes and uses this information to understand and predict atmospheric conditions and raise alarms if ozone levels become concerning.

What causes Ozone hole's depletion?

1. The size of the ozone hole depends on temperature differences between polar and moderate latitudes, influenced by the Coriolis forces caused by the Earth's rotation.
2. Unusual ozone patterns, possibly triggered by the eruption of Hunga Tonga Hunga Ha'apai in January 2022, may have contributed to this year's intense ozone hole.
3. The volcanic eruption injected water vapour and smoke into the stratosphere, leading to increased cloud and CFC (chlorofluorocarbon) formation, which likely accelerated ozone depletion.
4. In the 1970s and 1980s, the widespread use of chlorofluorocarbons (CFCs) in products like refrigerators and aerosol cans damaged the ozone layer high up in the atmosphere, resulting in the formation of the ozone hole over Antarctica.
5. In response, the Montreal Protocol was established in 1987 to phase out the production and consumption of these harmful substances, leading to a gradual recovery of the ozone layer.

Mera Yuva Bharat launched

GS Paper - 2 (Polity)

After the passage of the women’s reservation Bill last month, the government has launched an initiative to tap into a big constituency—the 40-crore youth population. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s cabinet approved the establishment of an autonomous body called Mera Yuva Bharat (MY Bharat) for “youth-led development and to provide equitable access to the youth”.

Why MY Bharat

1. The primary objective of MY Bharat is to become an overarching platform for youth development. The MY Bharat portal will be unveiled on 31 October to mark the birth anniversary of Sardar Vallabhbhai Patel.
2. The platform is meant to offer suitable opportunities for youngsters to engage in voluntary work in the field of their choice and look for such opportunities across the country.
3. It will act as a one-stop shop for young people and various central government ministries, and will also create a centralised youth database. However, govt. clarified there will be no financial remuneration involved.
4. Today, our country boasts a demographic dividend, with around 40 crore youth in the age bracket of 15-19 years… The move will unleash their true potential and provide them with opportunities to come forward and contribute to nation-building.
5. Under the new arrangement, with access to resources and connection to opportunities, the youth will become agents of community change and nation builders, acting as the Yuva Setu (a youth bridge) between the government and the citizens.
6. The autonomous body will benefit the youth in the age group of 15-29 years, in line with the definition of youth in the National Youth Policy, n the case of programme components meant for adolescents, the beneficiaries will be in the age group of 10-19 years.
7. In a statement issued after the announcement, the youth affairs and sports ministry said the establishment of MY Bharat would improve leadership skills in youngsters through experiential learning. It would also lead to investing more in the youth to make them social innovators and leaders.
8. It will lead to setting the focus of the government on youth-led development and to make them ‘active drivers’ of development and not merely ‘passive recipients’, fitting their aspirations with community needs, the ministry said.