Global Hunger Index 2024 (Prelims- Environment; Mains- GS III: Economy)

Why in News?

The Global Hunger Index for 2024 states that a ‘serious’ level of hunger is prevalent in India.

The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide, Welthungerhilfe, and the Institute for International Law of Peace and Armed Conflict (IFHV), designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at the global, regional, and country levels. The aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.

WHAT IS MEANT BY “HUNGER”?

The problem of hunger is complex, and different terms are used to describe its various forms. Hunger is usually understood to refer to the distress associated with a lack of sufficient calories. 

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) defines food deprivation, or undernourishment, as the habitual consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum dietary energy an individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.

Undernutrition goes beyond calories and signifies deficiencies in any or all of the following: energy, protein, and/or essential vitamins and minerals. 

Undernutrition is the result of inadequate intake of food in terms of either quantity or quality, poor utilization of nutrients in the body due to infections or other illnesses, or a combination of these immediate causes. These, in turn, result from a range of underlying factors, including household food insecurity; inadequate maternal health or childcare practices; or inadequate access to health services, safe water, and sanitation.

Malnutrition refers more broadly to both undernutrition (problems caused by deficiencies) and overnutrition (problems caused by unbalanced diets that involve consuming too many calories in relation to requirements, with or without low intake of micronutrient-rich foods).

Overnutrition—resulting in overweight, obesity, and noncommunicable diseases—is increasingly common throughout the world, with implications for human health, government expenditures, and food systems development. While overnutrition is an important concern, the GHI focuses specifically on issues relating to undernutrition.

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool designed to comprehensively measure and track hunger at global, regional, and national levels, reflecting multiple dimensions of hunger over time.

How the GHI Is Calculated ?

Each country’s GHI score is calculated based on a formula that combines four indicators(Undernourishment, Child stunting, Child wasting, Child mortality) that together capture the multidimensional nature of hunger.

HOW THE FOUR INDICATORS UNDERLYING THE GHI CAPTURE THE MULTIDIMENSIONAL NATURE OF HUNGER

Why is a certain country’s GHI score so high (or so low)? 

The key to understanding a country’s GHI score lies in that country’s indicator values, especially when compared with the indicator values for other countries

For some countries, high scores are driven by high rates of undernourishment, reflecting a lack of calories for large swathes of the population. 

For others, high scores result from high levels of child wasting, reflecting acute undernutrition; child stunting, reflecting chronic undernutrition; and/or child mortality, reflecting children’s hunger and nutrition levels, in addition to other extreme challenges facing the population. 

Broadly speaking, then, a high GHI score can be evidence of a lack of food, a poor-quality diet, inadequate child caregiving practices, an unhealthy environment, or a combination of these factors.

GLOBAL HUNGER INDEX 2024: INDIA

In the 2024 Global Hunger Index, India ranks 105th out of the 127 countries with sufficient data to calculate 2024 GHI scores. With a score of 27.3, India has a level of hunger that is serious.

The report reveals alarming statistics: 13.7 percent of India’s population is undernourished, 35.5 percent of children under five are stunted, 18.7 percent suffer from wasting, and 2.9 percent of children die before their fifth birthday. These figures reflect deep-rooted issues related to undernutrition, unhealthy environments, and inadequate access to essential nutrients. 

India’s $500 billion opportunity — and how not to lose it (Prelims – Economy ; Mains – Paper III: Economy)

Why in news ?

Prime minister Narendra Modi announced $500 billion target for electronics manufacturing in India by 2030.

In September , at   SEMICON India 2024 . Prime minister Narendra Modi announced $500 billion target for electronics manufacturing in India by 2030. 

Growth in electronics manufacturing will solve India’s job challenge. 

Much of the electronics manufacturing growth is export-led. 

Global experiences suggest that growth of electronics manufacturing is often influenced by the presence of competitive regional clusters, such as Silicon Valley, Taiwan, Japan, South Korea, Shenzhen in China, and the Northern Key Economic Region in Vietnam.

 In India too we have such clusters like Sriperumbudur in Tamil Nadu and Noida in Uttar Pradesh. 

Studying successful regions around the world revealed three key factors for success — 

• large size with anchor investors, 
• customised regulations to suit export activity 
• devolution of administrative power down to the industrial park level.

Having a large size is crucial for maintaining competitiveness in the electronics industry. For instance, Shenzhen, a Chinese special region, which alone exports around $350 billion, covers an area of 2,000 sq km. In comparison, the largest Indian electronics cluster under the government’s Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) scheme spans only 2.5 sq km. Shenzhen generates manufacturing employment for 4.6 million workers . By contrast, Mundra EMC employs 5,000 workers. 

The advantage of a large size lies in its ability to facilitate the co-location of suppliers and buyers, thereby enhancing ecosystem competitiveness. Additionally, it enables investments in large, efficient shared industrial infrastructure, such as effluent plants and testing facilities, which ultimately reduce costs for all stakeholders. Moreover, the presence of large zones allows for the development of social infrastructure, including worker housing, schools, hospitals, and recreation facilities.

Given the political difficulties and prohibitive costs of acquiring large tracts of land, it will be better to develop around existing electronics manufacturing regions

These regions need a regulatory environment that is conducive to exports and comparable to the best manufacturing regions.. The focus should be on enacting labor laws that promote employment, such as allowing longer shifts, implementing globally competitive overtime regulations, and eliminating restrictions on the employment of women, who constitute a majority of the electronics workforce.

The other key area of customised regulation is taxation and tariffs.

Our competitors like Vietnam, China, etc., already allow foreign vendors or brands to manage component inventory seamlessly across borders without tax or tariff implications. This has been a big part of their success. Current Indian tax laws make inventory management by foreign entities unviable, making manufacturing needlessly complex.

Corporate tax and GST rates too need to be benchmarked against those in Vietnam and China to attract large global players. 

Indian factories are encumbered by numerous laws governing buildings, green cover, pollution norms, etc., that are globally uncompetitive. Electronics Manufacturing Cluster (EMC) authorities need to be able to relax these within the region.

To ensure responsive governance, central and state governments also need to devolve requisite powers to the EMC authority so that it can provide all necessary approvals and permissions.

Global examples have also shown that PPP models that attract private players to manage the region and build plug and play parks are a good way of speedy and high-quality execution.

Without thriving manufacturing regions, the ambitious goal set by the PM will remain just another manufacturing target we have no hope of achieving.

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (Prelims- IR)

Why in News?

CPEC our lifeline..going ahead with it. Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar is the face of Pakistan’s current government.

About CPEC

China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) is a bilateral project to improve infrastructure within Pakistan for better trade with China and to further integrate the countries of South Asia. 

During an April 2015 visit to Islamabad, Chinese President Xi Jinping and Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif unveiled the $46 billion China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). It is a flagship project under the Belt and Road Initiative (BRI) of China.

Goal: to transform Pakistan’s economy—by modernising its road, rail, air, and energy transportation systems—and to connect the deep-sea Pakistani ports of Gwadar and Karachi to the Xinjiang Uygur Autonomous Region in China and beyond by overland routes thereby, reducing the time and cost of transporting goods and energy such as natural gas to China by circumventing the Strait of Malacca and the South China Sea. 

The Geopolitics 

The initiative has the potential to bolster China in its growing geostrategic rivalry with India. With control of the Gwadar port in Pakistan and the Hambantota port in Sri Lanka, as well as the construction of the Payra port in Bangladesh, China’s navy has the potential to gain access to all sides of India.

China has ensured that a prominent Muslim country on its border will not speak out as Beijing continues to persecute its Uyghur minority.

Current geopolitics make a continued alliance between China and Pakistan inevitable. Growing U.S.-India security ties unite Beijing and Islamabad in concern over their common rival, New Delhi. Increasing U.S.-China competition limits cooperation between Pakistan and the United States, extending Islamabad’s reliance on Beijing for economic and military assistance. Pakistan’s own push for a greater partnership with Russia comes amid a deepening China-Russia alliance.

Pakistani Prime Minister Sharif called CPEC a “game changer,” and it did improve Pakistan’s infrastructure, reduced its blackouts, created tens of thousands of jobs, and boosted economic growth.

Its shortcomings, principally corruption, opacity, and a willingness to fund economically unviable projects, have led Beijing and Islamabad to moderate their expectations.

Increase in MSP (Prelims- Economy)

Why in News?

The Centre increased the minimum support price for rabi crops for the next marketing season of 2025-26 with the MSP for wheat going up by ₹ 150 a quintal.

About Minimum Support Price

What is MSP?

MSP stands for Minimum Support Price. It is the minimum rate at which farmers sell their crops to the government. This price prevents farmers from market fluctuation and offers stability and income security.

Who calculates MSP?

Established in 1965, the  Commission for Agricultural Costs and Prices (CACP),an attached office under the Ministry of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, recommends the MSP based on various factors. 

The factors considered by CACP for fixing MSP include the cost of production, domestic and international prices, demand-supply conditions, inter-crop price parity, and terms of trade between the agricultural and non-agricultural sectors.

The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs, headed by the Prime Minister, takes the final call on the MSP.

How is MSP calculated?

Cost of Production: Refers to cost which includes all paid out costs such as those incurred on account of hired human labour, bullock labour/machine labour, rent paid for leased in land, expenses incurred on use of material inputs like seeds, fertilizers, manures, irrigation charges, depreciation on implements and farm buildings, interest on working capital, diesel/electricity for operation of pump sets etc., miscellaneous expenses and imputed value of family labour.

The CACP calculates various types of production costs for every crop, both at the state and all-India average levels.

1. ‘A2’:

• Covers all paid-out costs directly incurred by the farmer in cash and kind on seeds, fertilisers, pesticides, hired labour, leased-in land, fuel, irrigation, etc.

2. ‘FL’:

• Includes A2 plus an imputed value of unpaid family labour.

CACP considers A2+FL as the cost of production and sets MSP at 1.5 times of it.

Crops Under MSP

• Annually, the Government of India announces MSPs for 22 mandated agricultural commodities, including 14 Kharif crops, 6 Rabi crops, and 2 commercial crops. 
• MSP for Toria and dehusked coconut is also fixed based on MSPs of rapeseed & mustard, and copra, respectively.

Kharif Crops: Paddy, Jowar, Bajra, Ragi, Maize, Tur/Arhar, Moong, Urad, Groundnut, Sunflower seed, Soybean, Sesamum, Nigerseed and Cotton.

Rabi Crops: Wheat, barley, gram, masur, rapeseed & mustard, safflower

Significance of hike in the MSP of wheat

 The hike in the MSP of wheat is significant as it is the second largest crop after paddy.

In the current Rabi Marketing Season (RMS) THE GOVERNMENT PROCURED 26.6 million tonnes of wheat, benefitting 22 lakh farmers. The government requires about 1.8 million tonnes of wheat to meet its monthly requirement under the National Food Security Act, 2013.

Need of MSP

• Stable Income Assurance: MSP acts as a safety net, guaranteeing farmers a stable income. This is particularly vital during unpredictable market conditions, providing financial stability.
• Comprehensive Price Considerations: MSP factors in various elements affecting agricultural production. Doing so shields farmers from market uncertainties, ensuring a more consistent income.
• Contribution to Public Distribution and Food Security: MSP plays a pivotal role in supplying produce for the public distribution system, ensuring food security at a national level. The creation of buffer stocks maintains a reliable supply of essential commodities.
• Influence on Market Prices and Economic Alignment: Beyond individual farmers, MSP significantly affects market prices. This influence encourages farmers to boost production, contributing to overall economic stability.

  Life’s Existence anywhere else in the solar system (Prelims- Science & Technology)

Why in News?

Europa Clipper: Spacecraft blasts off to hunt alien life on a distant moon.

What is Europa Clipper?

• Europa Clipper is the first mission designed to conduct a detailed study of Jupiter’s moon Europa.
•  There’s scientific evidence that the ingredients for life may exist on Europa.
• The spacecraft will travel 1.8 billion miles (2.9 billion km) to reach Jupiter in April 2030. 
• It will orbit Jupiter, and conduct 50 flybys of Europa at closest-approach altitudes as low as 16 miles (25 kilometres) above the surface, soaring over a different location during each flyby to scan the moon, gathering detailed measurements to investigate the moon.
• The mission’s three main science objectives are to understand the nature of the ice shell and the ocean beneath it, along with the moon’s composition and geology.

NASA’s Largest Planetary Mission Spacecraft

• With its massive solar arrays and radar antennas, Europa Clipper is the largest spacecraft NASA has ever developed for a planetary mission.
• The spacecraft has large solar arrays to collect enough light for its power needs as it operates in the Jupiter system, which is more than five times as far from the Sun as Earth. 
• Designed for Jupiter’s Tough Radiation Environment Because Europa is bathed in radiation trapped in Jupiter’s magnetic field, Europa Clipper’s payload and other electronics will be enclosed in a thick-walled vault.
• The vault walls – made of titanium and aluminium – will act as a radiation shield against most of the high-energy atomic particles.

Is Life Possible Beyond Earth?

Europa shows strong evidence of an ocean of liquid water beneath its icy crust. Beyond Earth, Europa is considered one of the most promising places where we might find currently habitable environments in our solar system. Europa Clipper will determine whether there are places below Europa’s surface that could support life.