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- October 2019
Index
Toppers Talk
Art & Culture
Polity
- Right to access internet is fundamental right declares Kerala High Court
- Legal rights of Deities in India, Difference in Natural and Juristic Person
- Bru refugees refuse to return to Mizoram
- No animal sacrifice in Tripura temple-Orders High Court
- EC’s Order on Reducing Sikkim CM’s Disqualification Period
- Law Ministry issues corrigendum to Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act
- Appointment of the Judges in India.
- New Chief Justice of India- How is CJI appointed?
- Indian Penal Code 1860, HM Amit Shah wants to Overhaul IPC
- National Population Register (NPR) 2020
- Whistle Blowers Allegations on Infosys
Governance & Social Justice
- 60% girls in Delhi colleges anaemic
- Niti aayog’s School education quality index
- Multipurpose National Identity Card
- Population pyramid : India Vs China, Demographic dividend Phase of India
- UN Population Report, India will become the most populous country by 2027
- Supreme Court upholds SC and ST (Prevention of Atrocities) Amendments Act
- Comparing Population Pyramids of India and China
- Waqf boards-Their governance and purpose
- Harvard Admissions Case
- Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana- Ist Anniversary, Problems and solutions
- Significance of sexual and Reproductive Health-Status of reproductive services in India
- Pregnancy in Old Age, What is In Vitro Fertilisation-Risks and legal shortcomings
- Supreme Court Judgement on NGOs and RTI
- Social Stock Exchange
- Rajasthan Govt changes EWS norms, Sets Rs 8 lakh family income as only criteria
- Global hunger index 2019
- No Government job for those with more than two kids
- Ranitidine CANCER risk
- IIT Council Introduces Tenure track system
International Relations
- Bangladesh growing faster than India ?
- Cyprus dispute explained
- Donald Trump impeachment
- India wins Hyderabad Nizam case against Pakistan
- India’s reply to Pakistan at UNGA
- Prime Minister of Malaysia calls India and invader in Kashmir
- Should India recognise the armenian genocide ?
- Why are CARICOM countries important for India ?
- Why are countries leaving OPEC ?
- Attacks on Saudi Oil facilities
- Organization of Islamic Cooperation issues statement on Jammu and Kashmir
- Sri Lanka’s relations with India & China
- US troops start pullout in Syria as Turkey prepares for operation
- What are Vanilla Islands?
- India-USA trade deal
- UNHCR Nansen Refugee Award-2019
- Modi – Xi Informal meet at Mamallapuram – Historic Chinese links
- India China informal summit in Tamil nadu
- Pakistan save from FATF blacklist till 2020
- USA blacklists China organisations over Uighur Muslim abuse
- Why is Chile burning ?
- Why is the Philippines important for India
- Xi jinping Nepal visit 2019 and impact on India
- India Pakistan Cross LOC Trade suspended, Should India revoke suspension?
- Protests in Lebanon
- Chennai to Vladivostok Sea Route
- End of baghdadi
- Indian government’s security advisory
- Indians no longer require Visa to visit Brazil
- Non Aligned Movement 2019 summit
- US backed Ceasefire between Turkey and Kurds
- Pakistan stops postal exchange with India
- China’s GDP growth slows to 6% slowest in 27 years
- Common Goods for Health project by WHO
- Turkey attack Kurds in Syria
Geography
Economy
- Behavioural Aspect of Farmer Suicide
- Is rural India really open defecation free ?
- Global Growth Slow Down
- Nobel Prize in Economics 2019
- Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership
- SBI wrote off bad loans worth 76,000 crores
- Surge in Onion Price
- Agriculture Credit by RBI’s Internal Working Group
- What is Debt to GDP Ratio?
- Yes Bank Crisis
- Nobel prize in Literature – Controversy
- Boosting Indian Exports
- Sopore Fruit Mandi deserted
- What is Pink Collarisation?
- Mizoram to have Broad Gauge railway line by 2021
- Demand downturn in Indian Economy
- Payment facilitation fund
- Participatory Guarantee Scheme
- RBI’s 4th Bi-monthly Monetary Policy 2019-20
- Tourism restrictions lifted in Kashmir
- Link between Jobs, Farming, and Climate
- Draft Social Security Code 2019
- State Tax Revenues, SGST and Central Tax Devolution are likely to fall short
- Competitiveness Index 2019 by World Economic Forum
- NITI Aayog’s Water Resources Strategy
- BSNL and MTNL financial issues-DoT prepares Rs 74000 crore revival plan
- 20th Livestock Census
- India falls 10 ranks in World economic forum’s Global competitiveness index
- RBI stops Printing Rs 2000 Notes
- What is the Unified Approach proposal of OECD?
- FCI granaries overflowing
- India’s Economic Growth 2019
- Financial Sector Scams in India
- Labour Market of India
- New Strategic Disinvestment Process
- Payment Delays to Sugarcane Farmers
- Why India’s IMF Quota is not increased
- What is monetary policy Transmission? Why banks are not reducing interest
- Mahatma Gandhi’s theory of Economics
- India moves up 14 spots to 63 on world Bank ease of doing business index
- New amendments to the Motor Vehicles Act
- Power Sector Scenario in India
- Telecos to Pay Rs 96,642 crore to the Government
- Camel population declines in Rajasthan
- Merger of BSNL and MTNL
- World bank on Indian economy
Defence & Security
- Nagas Kukis Conflict, What is the cause of the latest tensions?
- Case against 50 Celebrities controversy
- Can Indian Government intercept WhatsApp?
- UP Government fires 25000 home guards, Is Yogi Government’s decision justified?
- NCRB’s Crime in India 2017 report
- Aadhaar Social Media mandatory linking case
- What is TechSagar? National repository of India’s cyber tech capabilities.
Disaster Management
Science & Technology
- ISRO’S Project NETRA
- Facebook’s LIBRA Currency in trouble
- WHO launches first World report on Vision
- 2019 Nobel prize in physics
- 2019 Nobel prize in Physiology and Medicine
- Elon musk’s starlink project
- NASA’s ICON mission
- New King of the Moons in the Solar system is Saturn
- What Is Spectroscopy ?
- Quantum supremacy
Environment
- Climate Vulnerable Mapping Of India
- C40 Cities
- Gujarat Unveils emission trading scheme
- Forest Plus 2.0
- Himalayan States seeks Green Bonus
- India to Phase Out Single Use Plastic (SUP) by 2022
- Role of Volcanoes in Global Warming
- NH 766 ban controversy, Protests in Kerala against night traffic ban on the forest stretch
- Climate Change needs Global Solution
- Aarey Forest -2185 trees to be cut for Mumbai metro
- Government to build 1400 km long Green wall
- Graded Response Action Plan in Delhi
- Aerosol formation brightening clouds
- Anthrax outbreak in Pobitora Wildlife Sanctuary, Two affected buffaloes died
- Species in News from June to October 2019
- Climate Action Summit 2019
Prelims bits

Tag:GS-2||Governance & Social Justice||Human Development||Hunger& Famines
Why in News?
- Recently, the 14th Global Hunger Index (GHI) was published and ranked India among the 117 countries and mapped at a low level of 102.
- On the whole, the 2019 GHI report has found that the number of hungry people has risen from 785 million in 2015 to 822 million.
What is the Global Hunger Index?
- Welthungerhilfe (lately in partnership with Concern Worldwide) has produced the GHI almost every year since 2000.
- A low score gives a higher ranking to a country that implies better performance.
- The reason why hunger is mapped is to ensure that the world achieves’ Zero Hunger by 2030′–one of the United Nations ‘ Sustainable Development Goals.
- Therefore, for certain high-income countries, GHI is not calculated.
- GHI provides a much more comprehensive measure of hunger as it tracks the performance of different countries on four key parameters.
What are the four indicators of GHI?
- Undernourishment
- It reflects inadequate food availability.
- It is calculated by the share of the population that is undernourished (whose caloric intake is insufficient).
- Child Wasting
- It reflects acute undernutrition.
- It is calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are wasted (i.e., those who have low weight for their height).
- Child Stunting
- It reflects chronic undernutrition.
- It is calculated by the share of children under the age of five who are stunted (i.e., those who have low height for their age).
- Child Mortality
- It reflects both inadequate nutrition and an unhealthy environment.
- It is calculated by the mortality rate of children under the age of five (in part, a reflection of the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition.
- Each country’s data are standardized on a 100-point scale and a final score is calculated after giving 33% weight each to components 1 and 4, and giving 16.66% weight each to components 2 and 3.
What does the 2019 index reveal?
- In 2018, India was ranked 103 among the 119 countries were mapped.
- The rank is one better in 2019 i.e. at 102, but in reality, India is not better off in comparison to the other countries.
- The GHI slots countries on a scale ranging from ‘low’, ‘moderate’, ‘serious’, ‘alarming’ to ‘extremely alarming’ hunger levels.
- India is one of the 47 countries that have ‘serious’ levels of hunger.
- On the whole, the 2019 GHI report has found that,
- The number of hungry people has risen from 785 million (2015) to 822 million.
- Multiple countries have higher hunger levels now than in 2010.
- Approximately 45 countries are set to fail to achieve ‘low’ levels of hunger by 2030.
What is India’s score relative to those of the others?
- India is the worst in the BRICS grouping, with China at 25.
- In South Asia, Sri Lanka, Nepal, Bangladesh and Pakistan are behind India.
- Saudi Arabia (rank 34), Venezuela (rank 65), Lesotho (rank 79) and North Korea (rank 92) are some of the countries ahead of India.
- India has the largest democracy in the world and one of the largest economies, but most of India’s GHI countries are either badly governed and war-torn or ravaged by natural disasters. (E.g.): Afghanistan, Yemen, Haiti, etc.
Why is India ranked so low on GHI?
- With an overall score of 30.3 (rank 102), India is between Niger (score 30.2) and Sierra Leone (score 30.4).
- In 2000, India’s score was 38.8 and its hunger level was in the ‘alarming’ category.
- Since then, India has steadily improved on most counts to reduce its score and is now slotted in the ‘serious’ category.
- But the pace of India’s improvement has been relatively slow.
- This is illustrated in the trajectory of Niger and Sierra Leone’s scores, which in 2000 was of 52.1 and 53.6, respectively.
- They found themselves in the “extremely alarming” category of hunger and were much worse off than India.
- Despite achieving relatively fast economic growth since 2000, India has not been able to make commensurate strides in reducing hunger.
Reasons for the slow improvements in India?
- Child Wasting – Given the broader changes, one classification remains-Child Wasting is where India has worsened.
- In other words, from 16.5 (2010) to 20.8 (2019), the number of children under the age of 5 suffering from waste has risen.
- In this report, India’s child waste rate is extremely high at 20.8%, the highest waste rate in any country.
- Child Stunting – India’s child stunting rate, 37.9%, is also categorized as very high in terms of its public health significance.
- In India, just 6% of all children between 6 and 23 months of age are fed a minimum acceptable diet.
- In 2014, the Prime Minister instituted the ‘Clean India’ campaign to end open defecation and ensure that all households had latrines.
- Even with new latrine construction, the population’s health, and children’s growth and development as their ability to absorb nutrients is compromised.
Way forward
- In India, immediate and long-term measures are needed to combat the rates of malnutrition.
- Around 85 to 90 percent of waste can be managed at the community level.
- Now, nationwide nutritional rehabilitation centers are coming up. It can help to deal with the institutional needs of the already malnourished children.
- However, in order to prevent this from happening, Anganwadi mothers need to be educated on nutrition, access to clean drinking water and sanitation needs to be ensured, and security of living is needed.
- Nonetheless, nutrition formulation needs to be made available at the community level for immediate intervention.
- The government can utilize the existing network of public distribution system,have the self-help groups prepare packaged, portioned nutritional formulations to help the moderately malnourished before wasting happens.
Mains model questions
- In the Global Hunger Index report, India has the highest percentage of children who suffer from acute undernutrition. On other parameters, where India has improved, the pace has been relatively slow?Explain
References