Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs Chinmaya IAS Academy – Current Affairs
- India is ranked at 71st position in the Global Food Security (GFS) Index 2021 of 113 countries.
- Earlier, India was ranked 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021.
Important points:
- The GFS Index was designed and constructed by London-based Economist Impact and is sponsored by CortevaAgriscience.
- The 2021 GFSI is the tenth edition of the index. It is published every year.
It measures the underlying drivers of food security based on the following factors:
- Affordability
- Availability
- Quality and Safety
- Natural Resources and Resilience
It considers 58 unique food security indicators including income and economic inequality – calling attention to systemic gaps and actions needed to accelerate progress toward United Nations Sustainable Development Goal of Zero Hunger by 2030.
- Ireland, Australia, the UK, Finland, Switzerland, the Netherlands, Canada, Japan, France and the US shared the top rank with the overall GFS score in the range of 77.8 and 80 points on the index.
- Overall Position: India held 71st position with an overall score of 57.2 points on the GFS Index 2021 of 113 countries
- In Comparison to Neighbouring Countries: It fared better than Pakistan (75th position), Sri Lanka (77th Position), Nepal (79th position) and Bangladesh (84th position). But the country was way behind China (34th position).
- However, over the past 10 years, India’s incremental gains in overall food security score were lagging behind that of Pakistan, Nepal and Bangladesh.
- India’s score improved only by 2.7 points to 57.2 in 2021 from 54.5 in 2012 when compared with Pakistan by 9 points (to 54.7 in 2021 from 45.7 in 2012).
- Pakistan scored better than India in the food affordability category and Sri Lanka was even better. On the remaining 3 factors, India scored better than Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka.
- Global food security has decreased for the second year in a row after seven years of progress towards the Sustainable Development Goalof achieving zero hunger by 2030.
- While countries have made significant strides toward addressing food insecurity in the past ten years, food systems remain vulnerable to economic, climatic, and geopolitical shocks.
Suggestions:
- Action is imperative at all levels–local, national, and global–to end hunger and malnourishment and ensure food security for all.
- To meet these present and emerging future challenges requires that investments in food security are sustained – from innovation in climate-resilient crop yields to investing in programs to assist the most vulnerable.
SOURCE: THE HINDU,THE ECONOMIC TIMES,MINT
