Global Hunger Index, 2023 (GHI)

The Global Hunger Index, 2023 was recently released by the Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe, Non-Government Organisations from Ireland and Germany respectively.

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional and national levels.
• GHI scores are based on the values of 4 component indicators that includes:
  1. Undernourishment – The share of the population with insufficient caloric intake.
  2. Child stunting – The share of children under age five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.
  3. Child wasting – The share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.
  4. Child mortality – The share of children who die before their fifth birthday, partly reflecting the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.
• Based on the values of the 4 indicators, a GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger.
• ‘0’ is the best possible score (no hunger) and ‘100’ is the worst.
• Each country’s GHI score is classified by severity, from low to extremely alarming.
• The 2023 GHI score for the world is 18.3, which is considered moderate.
• The following combination of the crises have led to a cost of living crisis and exhausted the coping capacity of many countries:
  1. COVID-19 pandemic,
  2. Russia-Ukraine war,
  3. Economic stagnation,
  4. Impacts of climate change and
  5. Intractable conflicts facing many countries of the world.

India

• In the 2023 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 111th out of the 125 countries.
• India has a score of 28.7 in the 2023 Global Hunger Index and has a level of hunger that is serious.
• India has the highest child wasting rate in the world at 18.7%.
• Afghanistan, Haiti and 12 sub-Saharan countries perform worse than India on the index.
• India made significant strides between 2000 and 2015, with its score improving from 38.4 in 2000 to 35.5 in 2008 and 29.2 in 2015.
• Over the past 8 years, the country has improved on the GHI by only 0.5 points.
• The Ministry of Women and Child Development (MoWCD) has questioned the GHI and called it a “flawed measure of hunger that doesn’t reflect India’s true position”.

Setu Bandhan Scheme

Recently the ministry of road transport and highways approved 7 bridge projects in Arunachal Pradesh under the Setu Bandhan Scheme.

• The Setu Bandhan scheme have been introduced to improve inter-state connectivity, especially on the rural areas at the borders where state roads do not get the required attention.
• The scheme is an initiative of the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (Morth).
• The scheme is different from “Setu Bharatam” scheme.
• Setu Bharatam is an ambitious programme with an investment of Rs. 50,000 crore to build bridges for safe and seamless travel on National Highways.
• The programme aims at making all national highways Railway Level Crossing free by 2019.

Intensified Mission Indradhanush 5.0 (IMI 5.0)

The third phase of IMI 5.0, an immunisation campaign targeting partially vaccinated and unvaccinated children up to the age of 5 years and pregnant women is held in the month of September.

• Mission Indradhanush (MI) is the flagship routine immunization campaign that was launched by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare (MoHFW) on December 2014.
• It is a special catch-up campaign under the Universal Immunization Program (UIP), conducted in the areas of low immunization.
• It aids to vaccinate all the children up to 5 years of age and pregnant women left out or dropped out from Routine Immunization.
• IMI 5.0 campaign aims to enhance immunization coverage for all vaccines provided under the Universal Immunization Programme (UIP) as per the National Immunization Schedule (NIS).
• Universal Immunisation Programme (UIP) is a vaccination programme launched by the Government of India in 1985.
• IMI 5.0 campaign has a special focus on improvement of Measles and Rubella vaccination coverage with the aim of Measles & Rubella elimination by 2023.
• Vaccination will be provided free of cost on all public hospitals, health centres as well as selected public places.
• It also aims to use U-WIN digital platform for Routine Immunization in pilot mode across all districts in the country.
• U-WIN platform is a one stop digital platform which will maintain an electronic registry of vaccinations and immunisation programs.
• It is designed on the lines of Co-WIN, will be used to register and vaccinate pregnant women, register births and record immunisation and vaccination details till age 13.

Ozone

Recently Large ozone hole has been detected over Antarctica is one of the biggest on record, roughly three times the size of Brazil.

• Ozone (O3) is a highly reactive gas composed of three oxygen atoms.
• It is both a natural and a man-made product that occurs in the Earth's upper atmosphere ozone (the stratosphere) and lower atmosphere (the troposphere).
• Stratospheric ozone is formed naturally through the interaction of solar ultraviolet (UV) radiation with molecular oxygen (O2).
• Tropospheric or ground-level ozone is formed primarily from photochemical reactions between 2 major classes of air pollutants such as volatile organic compounds (VOC) and nitrogen oxides (NOx).
• Tropospheric ozone concentrations can and do occur anywhere and it is not just limited to big cities.
• The "ozone layer," above the Earth's surface, reduces the amount of harmful UV radiation reaching the Earth's surface.
• The ozone layer is a trace gas in the stratosphere.
• The ozone layer functions as a protective gas shield that absorbs ultraviolet radiation, protecting humans and ecosystems from dangerous amounts of UV.
• Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to high amounts of UV radiation.
• The ozone holes were caused by widespread use of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons.
• The Montreal Protocol, 1987 was created to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of these harmful substances.
• The protocol was effective that ozone holes got smaller in the decades after ozone-depleting gas emissions were controlled.
• Kigali agreement is upgradation of the Montreal Protocol.

Arabian Leopard

The recent ongoing war between Israel and Palestine may be a threat to the declining population of the Arabian leopard.

• Arabian leopard is the smallest leopard subspecies that is endemic to Arabian Peninsula.
• It is found on the countries such as Egypt, Israel, Jordan, Oman, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates and Yemen.
• Its population is estimated to contain fewer than 200 individuals.
• The largest confirmed Arabian leopard population is found in the Dhofar Mountains of Oman with less than 100 individuals.
• They live in mountainous uplands and hilly steppes but seldom move to open plains, deserts or coastal lowlands.
• They prefer well-vegetated terrain that is difficult for humans to reach.
• It has been listed as Critically Endangered on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List.
• The global fund for the Arabian leopard is an initiative of the Royal Commission for AlUla (RCU).
• AlUla is a City in Saudi Arabia and RCU is headed by the Crown Prince of Saudi Arabia, Mohammed bin Salman Al Saud.