Current Affairs 15 October 2022

15 OCTOBER 2022

CONTENTS Global hunger index 2022 Role of women in livestock Mains value addition Prelims, PIB , Sports

GS- I /II -Society /issues of health

GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX

• India  ranks 107 out of 121 countries in 2022  . The level of hunger in India was ‘serious’ according to the report.
• The country ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84) and Pakistan (99); Afghanistan is the only South Asian country that lags behind India in the listing.
• Rank is 101 among 116 countries in 2021

Indicators

Four indicators were considered for calculating the global score out of 100, in order to decide the ranking:

1. Undernourishment.
2. Child wasting (percentage of children below five years of age who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition).
3. Child stunting (percentage of children below five years of age who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition).
4. Child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).

A three-step process based on standardisation of scores on each of the indicators and their aggregation yields a country’s GHI score on a 100-point ‘GHI Severity Scale’, where 0 is the best score and 100 is the worst.

• India’s child wasting rate (low weight for height), at 19.3%, is worse than the levels recorded in 2014 (15.1%) , and is the highest for any country in the world and drives up the region’s average owing to India’s large population.
• Undernourishment, which is a measure of the proportion of the population facing chronic deficiency of dietary energy intake, has also risen in the country from 14.6% in 2018-2020 to 16.3% in 2019-2021.
• But India has shown improvement in child stunting, which has declined from 38.7% to 35.5% between 2014 and 2022, as well as child mortality which has also dropped from 4.6% to 3.3% in the same comparative period.
• On the whole, India has shown a slight worsening with its GHI score increasing from 28.2 in 2014 to 29.1 in 2022.
• Though the GHI is an annual report, the rankings are not comparable across different years. The GHI score for 2022 can only be compared with scores for 2000, 2007 and 2014.

GS-III- Agriculture-Economics of animal rearing

LIVESTOCK SECTOR -Role of women

Stats –

• The livestock sector is one of the most rapidly growing components of the rural economy of India, accounting for 5% of national income and 28% of agricultural GDP in 2018-19.
• In the last six years, the livestock sector grew at 7.9% (at constant prices) while crop farming grew by 2%. Our field studies show that in rural households that own livestock, women are invariably engaged in animal rearing.
• On the International Day of Rural Women (October 15), we need to recognise the role of women in livestock rearing, and to include women in all facets of livestock development, be it breeding, veterinary care, extension services, training or access to credit and markets.
• Five million women members in dairy co-operatives in 2015-16, and this increased further to 5.4 million in 2020-21.

An underestimation

• To illustrate, 12 million rural women were workers in livestock-raising, an estimate based on the Employment and Unemployment Survey of 2011-12.
• However, with the augmented definition, we estimated that around 49 million rural women were engaged in livestock raising.India’s first national Time Use Survey in 2019 corroborate this finding.
• The National Livestock Policy (NLP) of 2013, aimed at increasing livestock production and productivity in a sustainable manner, rightly states that around 70% of the labour for the livestock sector comes from women. One of the goals of this policy was the empowerment of women. proposes that the State government allocates 30% of funds from centrally-sponsored schemes for women
• The National Livestock Mission (NLM) of 2014-15 was initiated for the development of the livestock sector with a focus on the availability of feed and fodder, No specifc women related proposals.

Core problems

Lack of gender-disaggregated data,

1. First, recent employment surveys such as the Periodic Labour Force Survey fail to collect data on specific activities of persons engaged primarily in domestic duties. So, the undercounting of women in the livestock economy continues.
2. Second, the reach of extension services to women livestock farmers remains scarce. According to official reports, 80,000 livestock farmers were trained across the country in 2021, but we have no idea how many were women farmers.
3. Third, in our village surveys, women in poor households, without collateral to offer to banks, found it difficult to avail loans to purchase livestock. Around 15 lakh new Kisan Credit Cards (KCC) were provided to livestock farmers , no information on  women farmers.
4. Fourth, women livestock farmers lacked technical knowledge on choice of animals (breeding) and veterinary care.
5. Fifth, our village studies showed that women were not aware of the composition and functions of dairy boards and that men exercised decisions even in women-only dairy cooperatives. Further, the voice of women from landless or poor peasant Scheduled Caste households was rarely heard.

Women’s labour is critical to the livestock economy. It follows then that women should be included in every stage of decision-making and development of the livestock sector. Today, women livestock workers remain invisible on account of their absence in official statistics. This must be corrected.

MAINS VALUE ADDITION

GS-II, III -Polity , Security

• The State Investigation Agency (SIA) of Jammu and Kashmir filed a chargesheet against the editor of the online magazine, The Kashmir Walla, and a PhD scholar in a “narrative terrorism” case

GS-II- Polity

• The High Court of Karnataka allowed app-based transport technology aggregators — Ola, Uber and Rapido — to levy 10% additional charge over and above the fares fixed by the State government, and the applicable GST.

GS-III- Environment-Climate change

• The Supreme Court said it may consider taking up Kerala’s review of the Supreme Court’s judgment to have a one-km eco-sensitive zone ringing protected forests, national parks and wildlife sanctuaries across the country along with a plea for clarification sought by the Centre.
• The Centre has sought a clarification on certain paragraphs in the court’s verdict, including the fate of building activities pre-dating the judgment.
• The judgment would lead to massive displacement of people living in the vicinity of forest areas. Would strip thousands of Scheduled Tribe families and forest dwellers of their vested rights .

 PRELIMS

1. Varanasi Court rejects plea seeking carbon dating of ‘Shivling’ in Gyanvapi Mosque row
2.  Nagaland CM Neiphiu Rio launches universal health insurance scheme.
3. Nuclear-powered submarine INS Arihant conducts launch of submarine launched ballistic missile.
4. India participates at the 6th East Asia Summit Education Minister’s Meeting in Hanoi, Vietnam.
5. India’s foreign exchange reserves rise 204million  to 532.87 billion in the week through Oct. 7.
6.  China has a plan to deflect a 40 m wide, earth-crossing asteroid named 2020PN1 by 2026. 

PIB

1. World Standards Day, (14 October ) Bureau of Indian Standards, Mumbai today organized a Standards Conclave –“Manak Mahotsav” based on the theme ‘Standards for Sustainable Development Goals – A Shared Vision for a Better World’.

BIS is the National Standard Body working under the Ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Government of India

• Shri Rajnath Singh launched ‘Maa Bharati Ke Sapoot’ website  (www.maabharatikesapoot.mod.gov.in)  for contribution to the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund (AFBCWF)
• A Tri-Service Band Symphony ‘Ek Shaam Desh Ke Naam’ to pay homage to fallen heroes and highlight jointness among services.
• Election Commission of India has started a new weekly program ‘Matadata Junction’ on Voter Awareness

BIS is the National Standard Body working under the Ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Government of India

• www.maabharatikesapoot.mod.gov.in)  for contribution to the Armed Forces Battle Casualties Welfare Fund (AFBCWF)
• A Tri-Service Band Symphony ‘Ek Shaam Desh Ke Naam’ to pay homage to fallen heroes and highlight jointness among services.
• Election Commission of India has started a new weekly program ‘Matadata Junction’ on Voter Awareness

Sports –

• tood as top state with 39 gold medals (140 total) and Haryana with 38 golds (116 total) in National games concluded in Gujarat.But overall Services( army,navy,air force) topped the games

TERM IN NEWS

• A subpoena or witness summons is a writ issued by a government agency, most often a court, to compel testimony by a witness or production of evidence under a penalty for failure. 

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