Food insecurity, Samruddhi Mahamarg, Meetei Mayek, Electoral Bonds, Digi Yatra

Measuring Food Insecurity

• According to the Global Hunger Index 2022, India ranks 107th out of 121 countries monitored in 2021.
• The ranking of India is based on the use of the Indian government’s official statistics, the National Family Health Survey, which reveals alarmingly high rates of child mortality and chronic malnutrition in India, despite significant progress in recent years.
• The report is published by Concern Worldwide, which computes its index using one of FAO’s statistics, among others.

What is Food Security?

• Food Security is a multifaceted concept. Food is as necessary for survival as oxygen is for breathing. However, food security entails more than just eating two square meals per day. It has the following dimensions:
  • Availability: It refers to domestic food production, food imports, and stock held in government granaries.
  • Accessibility: Food is accessible to all people, regardless of their socioeconomic status.
  • Affordability: It denotes having enough money to purchase sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet one’s dietary requirements.
• Thus, a country’s food security is only ensured when there is enough food for everyone, everyone has the means to purchase food of acceptable quality, and there are no barriers to access.

About FAO

• The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) is a United Nations specialized agency that leads global efforts to end hunger.
• FAO was founded in 1945 and has its headquarters in Rome, Italy.
• It was founded with the goal of ensuring that everyone has access to high-quality food in sufficient quantities to live a healthy lifestyle.
• Every year, the FAO issues a number of major ‘State of the World’ reports on food, agriculture, forestry, fisheries, and natural resources.

Measures of FAO

• FAO is committed to valid and dependable food security measures. Food security exists when all people have physical, social, and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food that meets their dietary needs and food preferences for an active and healthy life at all times.
• Only by identifying those who are food insecure can effective policies to address the root causes of the problem be developed.
• The article attempts to undermine technical aspects of FAO’s food security measurement in order to argue that the report’s ranking does not reflect reality and that food insecurity is not a problem in India.
• India’s ranking is based on the use of the Indian government’s official statistics, the National Family Health Survey, which shows that acute malnutrition rates in children under the age of five are among the highest in the world.
• The same official data source confirms that India still has alarmingly high rates of child mortality and chronic malnutrition, despite significant progress in recent years. The Global Hunger Index was informed by the same official data source.

Is an increase in child stunting and child wasting necessarily bad?

• It claims that the stunted and wasted children would have died if child mortality rates had not decreased.
• It was claimed that falling child mortality rates are no consolation for the fact that a large proportion of children continue to suffer from the devastating consequences of acute and chronic malnutrition.
• The article also criticizes an FAO indicator used to measure food security, the prevalence of malnutrition.
• In 2015, countries scrutinized and approved this indicator to track the UN’s SDGs through the UN Statistical Commission and the UN Economic and Social Council.

Negative Aspects of FAO

• First, it incorrectly assumes that the prevalence of malnutrition is solely based on survey data collected by FAO using the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES).
  • In reality, it is calculated using national food balances and household consumption data.
  • The most recent food consumption data for India is from 2011, when the results of the 68th round of the NSS were released.
  • FAO does not have access to more recent data, including the results of the 75th round of the same consumer expenditure survey conducted in 2017-2018, which are not publicly available.
• The second error is a misunderstanding of how FAO’s FIES data are processed to ensure valid, reliable measures of the severity of food insecurity across countries.
  • Because the international community did not have a way to identify and monitor food insecure households and individuals in a comparable manner across countries, FAO launched the “Voices of the Hungry” project in 2013, involving global academic and political communities.

What is the Global Hunger Index (GHI)?

• The Global Hunger Index is a peer-reviewed annual report, jointly published by Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.
• 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 four component indicators:
  • Undernourishment
  • Child Stunting
  • Child Wasting
  • Child Mortality
• Undernourishment: the share of the population with insufficient caloric intake.
• Child stunting: the share of children under age five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition.
• Child wasting: the share of children under age five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition.
• 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 four indicators, a GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where 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 aim of the GHI is to trigger action to reduce hunger around the world.

Steps taken by the government to address Malnutrition

• Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme: To address the issue of malnutrition in the nation, the government is implementing a number of schemes and initiatives under the Umbrella Integrated Child Development Services Scheme.
• The National Food Security Act (NFSA) of 2013: It aims to ensure food and nutrition security for the most vulnerable people through its associated schemes and programs, making food access a legal right.
• POSHAN Abhiyaan: The government of India has launched the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) or POSHAN Abhiyaan to ensure a “Malnutrition Free India” by 2022.
• Anemia Mukt Bharat Abhiyan: Launched in 2018, the mission aims to reduce the annual rate of anaemia decline by one to three percentage points.
• Mid-day Meal (MDM) scheme: It aims to improve nutritional levels among schoolchildren, which has a direct and positive impact on enrolment, retention, and attendance in schools.
• Pradhan Mantri Matru Vandana Yojana (PMMVY): Rs.6,000 is transferred directly to pregnant women’s bank accounts in order for them to have better delivery facilities.
• Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) Program: It was established in 1975 with the goal of providing food, preschool education, primary healthcare, immunization, health check-ups, and referral services to children under the age of six and their mothers.

Samruddhi Mahamarg

• Officially named the “Hindu Hruday Samrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Highway”, the expressway is to connect Nagpur to Mumbai.
• This six-lane access-controlled road, designed for a top speed of 150 kmph, is the second expressway in the State after the Mumbai-Pune Expressway.
• The project is being led by the Maharashtra State Road Development Corporation (MSRDC), and is designed under the Engineering, Procurement and Construction (EPC) model.

It passes through three wildlife sanctuaries viz;

• the Katepurna wildlife sanctuary in Akola;
• the Karanja-Sohol Black Buck sanctuary in Washim; and
• the Tansa wildlife sanctuary in Thane.

Krushisamruddhi Nagar:

• Krushi Samruddhi Kendra (New Townships) is envisioned to develop along the Hindu Hrudaysamrat Balasaheb Thackeray Maharashtra Samruddhi Mahamarg.
• In all 18 new townships will be developed along the Samruddhi Expressway, which will create a network of industrial centers along the highway to enable the economic development of these areas.

The Need of the Expressway:

• The Expressway will reduce the time taken to 839-km distance between Nagpur and Mumbai, to seven hours which currently takes at least 17 hours.
• The Expressway, also called Samruddhi corridor, built at a project outlay of ₹55,335 crore, runs past 392 villages across 10 districts.
• The Expressway will have direct links to the Delhi-Mumbai Expressway and Jawaharlal Nehru Port Trust in Navi Mumbai.
• This will facilitate rapid transportation of goods, agricultural products and other resources from Maharashtra to various markets across the country and abroad as well.
• The Samruddhi corridor is expected to directly impact about 36% of the State’s population.
• It will be the country’s most extensive ‘greenfield’ route alignment with 23.65 lakh saplings and over 11 lakh trees on both sides.

Meetei Mayek

• Meetei Mayek is the alphabet used to write the he Meitei language, the official language of Manipur state of India.
• The earliest evidence of the script was seen in coins which dates back to 6th Century CE.
• It was used until the 18th century, when it was replaced by the Bengali alphabet.
• In 1709, a Hindu missionary named Shantidas Gosai came to Kangleipak, the ancient name for the independent kingdom of Manipur, to spread Vaishnavism.
• He mesmerised the kings and the high officials of the palace, and on royal orders, all religious and other precious books in Meitei Mayek were incinerated, and new ones written in the Bengali script.
• From 2021, the Government of Manipur started using the Meetei Mayek along with Bengali script as per “The Manipur Official Language (Amendment) Act, 2021“.
• The earliest stone inscription in Meitei script found from the Khoibu village in Manipur is widely believed to of the time of King Ura Konthouba.
• The earliest copper plate Meitei inscription dates back to the 8th century AD. It was inscribed during the reign of Meitei King Khongtekcha.
• The Meitei script is a Brahmic abugida which a segmental writing system in which consonant-vowel sequences are written as units; each unit is based on a consonant letter, and vowel notation is secondary.
• The Manipuri language was included in the Eighth Schedule of the Constitution in 1992, but in Bengali script.

Electoral Bonds

• Electoral Bonds are debt instruments which are purchased anonymously by donors to political parties.
• Introduced with the Finance Bill, 2017, the Electoral Bond Scheme was notified on January 29, 2018.
• They are valid for 15 days and the political parties can encash them.
• State Bank of India is authorised to issue and encash these bonds.
• The bonds are issued by SBI in denominations of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
• One can purchase these bonds only digitally or through cheques.
• The bonds can be purchased by any citizen of India for a period of ten days each in the months of January, April, July and October as may be specified by the Union Government.
• The bonds are only redeemable in the designated account of a registered political party.
• The Electoral Bond deposited by an eligible Political Party in its account is credited on the same day.

Eligibility Criteria:

• To be eligible to receive electoral bonds, a political party:
• Must be a registered political party under Section 29A of the Representation of the People Act, 1951.
• Must have secured not less than 1% of the votes polled in the last general election to the Lok Sabha or the State Legislative Assembly.

The Concerns:

• The Bank of choice being a solely government owned bank makes it possible for the party in power to know the identity of the buyer of the bond.
• While the bond scheme was brought in to bring transparency in to the electoral funding process, it has only in many ways made the process opaquer.
• By hiding the identity of the donor, it makes it possible for vested interests to play a larger role in the country’s elections.
• The new rules exempt the political parties from disclosing donations received through electoral bonds.
• This has made it impossible for the citizenry to know from where and whom does these parties get their money supply.
• This also means that they infringe upon the fundamental right to know under Article 19.

DigiYatra Initiative for facial recognition technology at Airports

The centre has introduced paperless entry at select airports to make air travel hassle-free under the DigiYatra initiative.

What is DigiYatra?

• DigiYatra envisages that travellers pass through various checkpoints at the airport through paperless and contactless processing.
• This means, passengers won’t need to carry their ID card and boarding pass.
• This would rather use facial features to establish their identity, which would be linked to the boarding pass.
• With this technology, the entry of passengers would be automatically processed based on the facial recognition system at all checkpoints – including entry into the airport, security check areas, aircraft boarding, etc.

Implementation strategy

• In the first phase, the initiative will be launched at seven airports, starting with three — Delhi, Bengaluru, and Varanasi.
• It will then be followed by four airports namely Hyderabad, Kolkata, Pune, and Vijayawada by March 2023.
• Subsequently, the technology will be implemented across the country.

How is it being implemented?

• The project is being implemented by the DigiYatra Foundation — a joint-venture company whose shareholders are the Airports Authority of India (26% stake) and Bengaluru Airport, Delhi Airport, Hyderabad Airport, Mumbai Airport and Cochin International Airport.
• These five shareholders equally hold the remaining 74% of the shares.

How can people avail the DigiYatra facility?

• For availing the service, a passenger has to register their details on the DigiYatra app using Aadhaar-based validation and a self-image capture.
• In the next step, the boarding pass has to be scanned, and the credentials are shared with airport authorities.
• At the airport e-gate, the passenger has to first scan the bar coded boarding pass and the facial recognition system installed at the e-gate will validate the passenger’s identity and travel document.
• Once this process is done, the passenger can enter the airport through the e-gate.
• The passenger will have to follow the normal procedure to clear security and board the aircraft.