Hunger Index: India trails Pakistan, Bangladesh & Nepal

India has slipped to the 101st position in Global Hunger Index 2021 of 116 countries from the 94th position in 2020, and is behind Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

Eighteen countries, including China, Brazil and Kuwait, shared the top rank with a GHI score of less than five, the website of the Global Hunger Index that tracks hunger and malnutrition said on Thursday.

The report, prepared by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe, termed the level of hunger in India “alarming”.

In 2020, India was ranked 94 out of 107 countries. Now with 116 countries in the fray, it has dropped to the 101st rank.

India’s GHI score has also decelerated—from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.8-27.5 between 2012 and 2021.

The GHI score is calculated on four indicators—undernourishment, child wasting (the share of children under the age of five who are wasted, that is, who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition), child stunting (those under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and child mortality (under the age of five).

The share of wasting among children in India rose from 17.1% from 1998-2002 to 17.3% in 2016-2020, according to the report.

“People have been severely hit by Covid-19 and by pandemic-related restrictions in India, the country with highest child wasting rate worldwide,” the report said. Nepal (76), Bangladesh (76), Myanmar (71) and Pakistan (92) are also in the ‘alarming’ hunger category, but have fared better at feeding its citizens than India.

India has shown improvement in other indicators such as the under-5 mortality rate, prevalence of stunting among children and prevalence of undernourishment owing to inadequate food, the report said.

According to the report, the fight against hunger is dangerously off track. Based on the current projections, the world as a whole—and 47 countries in particular —will fail to achieve a low level of hunger by 2030.

NCR: A Palm-Shaped Idea Emerging

The shape of the National Capital Region may become somewhat like a “palm” if the consensus among four member-states of the region gets formal approval for delineation of the area. It is being proposed that an area with a radius of 100km from Rajghat would become the main NCR while linear towns along the transport nodes such RRTS, Expressways and Highways falling under the current boundary would also come under the region.

“It won’t be a circular area for sure. The aim is to leave the areas falling between the major transport nodes beyond the proposed 100 km radius for other activities such as farming. We have proposed to bring the towns along the transport corridors under the national capital region only to ensure that there is planning and regulated development. There has been over expansion of the NCR in recent years,” said a government official.

Sources said while originally the plan for NCR was to cover an area with radius of around 100 km from the centre of Delhi when the first delineation proposal was made in early 1970s, by 2018 this radius increased to almost 130-140 km.

A comparative analysis of the past and current Regional Plans shows that the NCR area increased by almost 61% between 2011 and 2018 as a substantial portion of Haryana was added to the region. Official documents show that at the beginning of 2021 Regional plan, the total area of Haryana in NCR was 13,413 sq km, but by 2018, this swelled to 25,327 sq km. On the other hand, the addition of areas in Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh was less. There was no change in the NCT of Delhi as NCR covered the entire national capital.

“The expansion of NCR was less prior to 2011. One of the main reasons why the participating states wanted more areas to be added was to get the Regional Rapid Transit System connectivities and the other interest was to get loan from the NCRPB at low interest rate for infrastructure projects. Now it’s high time we plan for right-sizing the NCR and stop further expansion. The government must finalise the new delineation proposal quickly,” said a source.

He added that there was also a perception that the property prices would increase once an area is notified under the NCR.

An official from the urban affairs ministry said they will incorporate the proposal for fresh delineation in the Draft Regional Plan 2041 and after considering the suggestions and objections, it will take the decision. But some of the planners said that the delineation has to be done through a separate gazette notification.

GatiShakti to Give Impetus to 21st Century India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the GatiShakti programme aimed at holistic governance through multi-modal connectivity between ministries and the Centre and state governments on development projects to ensure speedy completion by reducing red tape, lowering logistic costs and stop departments from working in silos.

Inaugurating the ambitious national master plan, Modi said, “With the whole-of-government approach, the collective power of the government will be channeled into fulfilling projects.”

He asserted that the government is laying the foundation for atmanirbharta (self-reliance) in the next 25 years. The aim of his dispensation is not just to complete various development projects on time but to do so ahead of the set deadline.

“This Masterplan will give impetus (Gati Shakti) to 21st century India,” the Prime Minister said.

The masses, Indian industry, business, manufacturers and farmers are at the center of this campaign, Modi said, adding that it will give new energy to the present and future generations of India.

He lamented that government projects have till now failed to impress the people with the general belief being that it would be of bad quality, there would be a lot of red tape, delays, and marked by an apathy and disrespect for the taxpayers’ money due to the “chalta hai” attitude.

“The signage “work in progress” at any project site symbolizes a lack of trust,” the Prime Minister said, adding that progress requires speed, eagerness and collective efforts. Today’s, 21st century India, he said, is leaving behind old systems and practices.

“The mantra today is - ‘Work for Progress’, Wealth for Progress, Plan for progress and Preference for progress. We have not only developed a work culture of completing the projects within the stipulated time frame but efforts are now being made to complete the projects ahead of time,” he said.

Most political parties have not given due priority to infrastructure development, the Prime Minister said. “This is not even visible in their manifesto. Now the situation has come that some political parties have started criticizing the construction of necessary infrastructure in the country,” Modi said.

This is despite the fact that it is globally accepted that the creation of quality infrastructure for Sustainable Development is a proven way, which gives rise to many economic activities and creates employment on a large scale, the Prime Minister pointed out.

Retail inflation at 5-month low in Sept, IIP up 11.9% in August

Retail inflation eased to five-month low in September as prices of some food products including vegetables moderated sharply, while the index of industrial production rose for the sixth successive month, providing much-needed relief, although experts said both numbers have some pressure points, which needed to be watched.

Retail inflation, as measured by the consumer price index, slowed to 4.4% in September, lower than the 5.3% in August, providing headroom to the central bank to move on interest rates if the softness persists. The rate was at 7.3% in September 2020. Rural inflation in September was at 4.1%, while urban was at 4.6%. The food price index was at 0.7% during the month, lower than the 3.1% in August.

Separate data showed industrial production growth for August was at a robust 11.9%, marginally higher than the 11.5% recorded a month earlier in July.

IMF Keeps India’s FY22 Growth Forecast Unchanged at 9.5%

The International Monetary Fund has kept India’s growth forecast for 2021-22 unchanged at 9.5%, but lowered the global growth projection marginally to 5.9% from 6% earlier citing supply disruptions in advanced economies and worsening pandemic dynamics in low-income developing countries.

The multilateral organisation in its latest World Economic Outlook report has projected India’s economy to grow 8.5% in FY23.

It said the foremost policy priority should be to vaccinate adequate numbers in every country and prevent more virulent virus mutations.

China’s growth forecast for 2021 and 2022 has been slashed by 0.1% to 8.0 and 5.6%, respectively.

IMF had in July slashed India’s growth forecast for FY22 to 9.5% from earlier projection of 12.5%, citing the severe second Covid-19 wave during March-May.

IMF’s growth projection is in line with the Reserve Bank of India’s GDP growth estimate for the current fiscal at 9.5% as also private agencies. The country is projected to become the fastest growing major economy again, overtaking China.

Global rating agency S&P, too, expects India to grow by 9.5% in FY22, while Moody’s has projected a GDP growth of 9.3% for the country.

Last week, the World Bank retained its India growth projection for FY22 at 8.3%, same as its June forecast, but said the increasing pace of vaccinations will determine India’s economic prospects this year and beyond.

Pandemic outbreaks in critical links of global supply chains had resulted in longer-than-expected supply disruptions, further feeding inflation in many countries, IMF chief economist Gita Gopinath said in the report.

Overall risks to economic prospects had increased, and policy trade-offs have become more complex, she said. She also flagged the divergence in economic prospects across countries. “Aggregate output for the advanced economy group is expected to regain its pre-pandemic trend path in 2022 and exceed it by 0.9% in 2024.”

According to IMF, speeding up vaccination of world population remains the top policy priority, while continuing the push for widespread testing and investing in therapeutics.

If Covid-19 were to have a prolonged impact into the medium term, it could reduce global GDP by a cumulative $5.3 trillion over the next five years relative to our current projection, the report said. According to IMF, beyond 2022 global growth is projected to moderate to about 3.3% over the medium term.

Government Lifts Flight Restrictions

The government has lifted restrictions on the number of flights that airlines can operate starting Monday, removing the 85% cap as India’s festive season gets into full swing. People are increasingly travelling by air as Covid numbers recede and more people get vaccinated.

“After review of the current status of scheduled domestic operations vis-a-vis passenger demand for air travel in terms of purpose specified in the initial order... it has been decided to restore the scheduled domestic air operations with effect from October 18 without any capacity restrictions,” the civil aviation ministry said in an order. Fare restrictions are still in place but “we are monitoring on a daily basis and a decision on it may come”, said a senior government official.

The capacity restriction was imposed in May 2020, at 33% in the beginning, as the aviation industry resumed operations after the nationwide lockdown began in the last week of March due to the Covid outbreak. Domestic passengers have risen steadily in the past few months and numbers are set to spike in the approach to Diwali and through the New Year.

"Our load factors (percentage of seats filled per flight) for the industry as a whole hit 80% last week, which is a sign of revival in passenger demand," said an airline executive. "The move to lift restrictions is timely and will help the sector."

The country’s biggest carrier IndiGo welcomed the move.

"We believe that with recent pent-up demand combined with the upcoming festive season, it will be great to operate flights on pre-pandemic levels," it said in a release.

Covaxin gets emergency use nod for 2-18 age group

The Hyderabad-based pharma major Bharat Biotech’s Covaxin has got the emergency use approval for children in the age group of 2 to 18 years from the Drugs Controller General of India.

The subject expert committee on COVID-19 gave the approval for the emergency use in the children.

The expert panel said in a statement, “After detailed deliberation, the committee recommended for grant of market authorisation of the vaccine for the age group of 2 to 18 years for restricted use in emergency situation.”

Bharat Biotech had submitted the trial data of phase 2 and 3 of Covaxin on children in the beginning of this month to the apex body — DCGI. The vaccine will be administered in two doses with 20 days of interval.

However, Bharat Biotech needs to submit safety data with due analysis every 15 days for the first two months and monthly thereafter.

Remarkably, the global health body World Health Organisation has not granted the emergency use authorisation to Covaxin.

The World Health Organisation said last week that it will carry out the risk and benefit assessment next week with experts and take a final decision on the much-awaited EUL to Covaxin.

The WHO said in the last meeting, “WHO & an independent group of experts are scheduled to meet next week to carry out the risk/ benefit assessment and come to a final decision whether to grant Emergency Use Listing to Covaxin”