Daily Current Affairs for UPSC IAS: 7th May 2022

World Food Prize:

Cynthia Rosenzweig, a Nasa climate research scientist who has spent much of her career explaining how global food production must adapt to a changing climate was awarded the World Food prize.

• Cynthia Rosenzweig, an agronomist and climatologist, was awarded the $250,000 prize in recognition of her innovative modeling of the impact of climate change on food production.

The World Food Prize:

• It is the foremost international honor recognizing the achievements of individuals who have advanced human development by improving the quality, quantity or availability of food in the world.
• It is an annual award that recognizes contributions in any field involved in the world food supply including plant, animal and soil science; food science and technology; nutrition, rural development, etc
• It is open for any individual without regard to race, religion, nationality or political beliefs.
• In addition to the cash award of $2,50,000, the laureate receives a sculpture designed by the noted artist and designer, Saul Bass.

National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5):

Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare, Dr. Mansukh Mandaviya released the National Report of the fifth round of National Family Health Survey (NFHS-5).

Key results from NFHS-5 National Report:

• The Total Fertility Rates (TFR), an average number of children per women, has further declined from 2.2 to 2.0 at the national level between NFHS-4 & 5.
• There are only five States in India, which are above replacement level of fertility of 2.1. They are Bihar (2.98), Meghalaya (2.91), Uttar Pradesh (2.35), Jharkhand (2.26) Manipur (2.17).
• Overall Contraceptive Prevalence Rate (CPR) has increased substantially from 54% to 67% in the country.
• Institutional Births have increased substantially from 79 percent to 89 percent in India.
• The level of stunting among children under 5 years has marginally declined from 38 to 36 percent for India since the last four years.

Delimitation Commission Of J&K :

The Delimitation Commission headed by Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, (a retired Judge of the Supreme Court of India) released the Delimitation Order for the Union Territory of Jammu & Kashmir.

• As per the final Delimitation Order, the following will come into effect from the date to be notified by the Central Government:
• Out of the 90 Assembly Constituencies (ACs) in the region, 43 will be part of Jammu region and 47 for Kashmir region keeping in view the provisions of Section 9(1)(a) of the Delimitation Act, 2002 and Section 60(2)(b) of Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2019.
• 9 ACs have been reserved for STs, out of which,6 are in Jammu region and 3 ACs in the Valley.
• There are five Parliamentary Constituencies in the region. Each Parliamentary Constituency will have equal number of 18 Assembly Constituencies each.
• Names of some ACs have also been changed keeping in view the demand of local representatives.
• The Delimitation Commission was entrusted with the work of delimiting the Assembly and Parliamentary Constituencies in the UT of Jammu and Kashmir on the basis of 2011 Census and in accordance with the provisions of Part-V of the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 (34 of 2019) and the provisions of Delimitation Act, 2002(33 of 2002).

Purchasing Managers Index:

According to the S&P Global India Manufacturing Purchasing Managers’ Index (PMI), India’s manufacturing sector recorded a slight acceleration in new orders and output which rose to 54.7 in April 2022 from 54 in March 2022.

Highlights of the Index:

• April data showed a rebound in new export orders, following the first contraction for nine months in March.
• Contraction, in economics, refers to a phase of the business cycle in which the economy is in decline.
• A contraction generally occurs after the business cycle peaks, but before it becomes a trough.
• Inflationary pressures meanwhile intensified, owing to rising commodity prices, the Russia-Ukraine war and greater transportation costs.
• Input prices increased at the fastest pace in five months, while output charge inflation hit a 12-month high.
• A major insight from the latest results was an intensification of inflationary pressures, as energy price volatility, global shortages of inputs and the war in Ukraine pushed up purchasing costs.
• On the job front, there was only a mild increase in employment during April 2022.

PMI:

• It is a survey-based measure that asks the respondents about changes in their perception of key business variables as compared with the previous month.
• It is an index of the prevailing direction of economic trends in the manufacturing and service sectors.
• The purpose of the PMI is to provide information about current and future business conditions to company decision makers, analysts, and investors.
• It is calculated separately for the manufacturing and services sectors and then a composite index is also constructed.
• The PMI is a number from 0 to 100.
• A print above 50 means expansion, while a score below that denotes contraction.
• A reading at 50 indicates no change.
• If the PMI of the previous month is higher than the PMI of the current month, it represents that the economy is contracting.
• It is usually released at the start of every month. It is, therefore, considered a good leading indicator of economic activity.

PMFME Scheme:

The Ministry of Food Processing Industries and NAFED (National Agricultural Cooperative Marketing Federation of India Limited) launched Three One District One Product (ODOP) brands under the Pradhan Mantri Formalisation of Micro food processing Enterprises (PMFME) Scheme.

• The Ministry of Food Processing Industries has signed an agreement with NAFED for developing 10 brands of selected 20 ODOPs under the branding and marketing component of the PMFME scheme.
• PMFME Scheme Launched under Atmanirbhar Abhiyan (in 2020), it aims to enhance the competitiveness of existing individual micro-enterprises in the unorganised segment of the food processing industry and to promote formalisation of the sector and provide support to Farmer Producer Organisations, Self Help Groups, and Producers Cooperatives along their entire value chain.
• The scheme adopts the One District One Product (ODOP) approach to reap the benefit of scale in terms of procurement of inputs, availing common services and marketing of products.
• It will be implemented over a period of five years from 2020-21 to 2024-25.
• Features:
  • One District One Product (ODOP) Approach: The States would identify food products for districts keeping in view the existing clusters and availability of raw material.
  • The ODOP could be a perishable produce based or cereal based or a food item widely produced in an area. E.g. mango, potato, pickle, millet based products, fisheries, poultry, etc.

Grey Slender Loris:

Scientists from the Salim Ali Centre for Ornithology and Natural History (SACON) in Coimbatore carried out a survey of Grey slender loris populations in Tamil Nadu’s Dindigul forest division.

Grey Slender Loris:

• The Grey slender loris belongs to the family Loridae.
• It is a species of primate.
• It has got a lean and lanky appearance, with longer and slender limbs, larger ears, pointed snout and eyes circled with black or dark brown.
• The fur is soft and woolly. The colour varies from dark grey to earthy brown.
• The Grey slender loris is a nocturnal animal. It is also a slow-moving animal. It comes down into the bushes to feed and crosses open stretches of ground to enter isolated groves or to cross from one tree to another.
• Though it is insectivorous, it is fond of berries also.
• They are found in tropical rainforests, scrub forests, semi-deciduous forests, and swamps.
• Grey Slender Loris generally inhabits dry and drought-prone areas of Dindigul district of Tamil Nadu.
• It is found in acacia and tamarind-dominated thorn and scrub forests near cultivated fields.
• The species occurs in southern and eastern India (Andhra Pradesh, Karnataka, Kerala and Tamil Nadu) and Sri Lanka.
• There are two species of Slender Loris, the only members of the genus ‘Loris’:
  • Red Slender Loris (Loris tardigradus)
  • Grey Slender Loris (Loris lydekkerianus)
• The loris has become threatened mainly because of habitat loss.
• The disappearance of the acacia tree, a preferred tree species of the loris, hunting for the pet trade and for their meat, road kills, superstitious kills, traditional medicine and habitat fragmentation pose serious threats to this primate.
• Protection Status:
  • IUCN: Near Threatened
  • CITES: Appendix II
  • Wildlife (Protection) Act of India, 1972: Schedule I

PMKGAY : Allocation Of Rice And Wheat From May To September 2022

The Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Distribution revised the PMKGAY (Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana) allocation of rice and wheat for all the 36 states/UTs for the remaining five months — from May to September 2022.

• PMGKAY is a part of Pradhan Mantri Garib Kalyan Package (PMGKP) to help the poor fight the battle against Covid-19.
• Its nodal Ministry is the Ministry of Finance.
• It was initially announced for a three-month period (April, May and June 2020), covering 80 crore ration cardholders.
• Later it was extended till November 2020.
• Phase-I and Phase-II of this scheme were operational from April to June 2020 and July to November 2020 respectively.
• Phase-III of the scheme was operational from May to June 2021.
• Phase-IV of the scheme is currently operational for July-November 2021 months.
• The scheme aimed at providing each person who is covered under the NFSA (National Food Security Act 2013) with an additional 5 kg grains (wheat or rice) for free, in addition to the 5 kg of subsidized food grain already provided through the Public Distribution System (PDS).
• The new version of the PMGKAY lacks one of its important components which was there in 2020 PMGKAY i:e free-of-cost 1 kg pulses per month to each household covered under the NFSA.
• The government will be incurring an expenditure of nearly Rs.2.60 lakh Crore in PMGKAY Phase I- V.
• PMGKAY-V will entail an estimated additional food subsidy of Rs. 53344.52 Crore.

FSSAI’s Star Rating:

The “health star rating” system that the Food Safety Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) plans to adopt in order to help consumers reduce their intake of unhealthy foods has been opposed by close to a dozen consumer and health advocacy groups.

• In February 2022, the FSSAI decided to adopt the “health-star rating system”, which gives a product 1/2 a star to 5 stars, in its draft regulations for front of package labelling (FOPL).
• It aims to help consumers reduce their intake of unhealthy foods.
• The HSR format ranks a packaged food item based on salt, sugar, and fat content and the rating will be printed on the front of the package.
• The underlying premise of the HSR is that positive ingredients such as fruits and nuts can offset negative nutrients such as calories, saturated fat, total sugar, sodium to calculate the number of stars ascribed to a product.
• All packaged food items or processed food will have the HSR label.
• These will include chips, biscuits, namkeen, sweets and chocolates, meat nuggets, and cookies.
• Exemptions: However, milk and its products such as chenna and ghee are EXEMPTED as per the FSSAI draft notified in 2019.

Haflong Hindi:

Some linguists feel pushing the standardised Hindi as a compulsory subject in school could affect Haflong Hindi speaking communities in the state.

• Haflong Hindi is the bridge language of Dima Hasao district of Assam.
• It stemmed from Hindi and includes vocabulary from several other languages, such as Assamese, Bengali, Dimasa and Zeme Naga.
• It is named after Haflong, which is the headquarters of Dima Hasao district.
• Haflong Hindi follows the Tibeto-Burman grammar, not the Hindi grammar, and has lexical additions from Nepali and Bengali.
• It has a generic plural marker and does not use numbers as in Hindi.

Global Report On Food Crises 2022:

An annual report named Global Report on Food Crises 2022 was launched by the Global Network Against Food Crises (GNAFC).

• The report is the flagship publication of the GNAFC and is facilitated by the Food Security Information Network (FSIN).

Highlights of the Report:

• Some 40 million more people globally experienced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels in 2021 than 2020.
• Over half a million Ethiopians, southern Madagascar, South Sudanese and Yemenese are suffering from acute food insecurity.
• Over 193 million people in 53 countries or territories experienced acute food insecurity at crisis or worse levels in 2021.
• Conflict forced 139 million people in 24 countries / territories into acute food insecurity.
• This is an increase from 99 million in 23 countries / territories in 2020.
• Weather Extremes forced over 23 million people in eight countries / territories into acute food insecurity, up from 15.7 million in 15 countries / territories in 2020.
• Over 30 million people in 21 countries / territories suffered acute food insecurity in 2021 due to economic shocks, down from over 40 million people in 17 countries / territories in 2020.
• According to the State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World (SOFI) report, 2021 India, the country with the largest stock of grain in the world, 120 million tonnes (as of 1st July 2021) accounts for a quarter of the world’s food-insecure population.
• Estimates show that, in 2020, over 237 crore people were grappling with food insecurity globally, an increase of about 32 crores from 2019.
• South Asia alone accounts for 36% of global food insecurity.