Archives for 2021

New Delhi: India has slipped to 101st position in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2021 of 116 countries, from its 2020 position of 94th and is behind its neighbours Pakistan, Bangladesh and Nepal.

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

The report, prepared jointly 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 94th out of 107 countries. Now with 116 countries in the fray, it has dropped to 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 i.e who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition); child stunting (children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition) and child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).

The share of wasting among children in India rose from 17.1 per cent between 1998-2002 to 17.3 per cent between 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.

Neighbouring countries like 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, according to the report.

However, 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 GHI projections, the world as a whole — and 47 countries in particular — will fail to achieve a low level of hunger by 2030.

Food security is under assault on multiple fronts, it said, adding that worsening conflict, weather extremes associated with global climate change, and the economic and health challenges associated with the COVID19 pandemic are all driving hunger.

“Inequality — between regions, countries, districts, and communities — is pervasive and, (if) left unchecked, will keep the world from achieving the Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) mandate to leave no one behind,” the report said.

Further, the report noted that it is difficult to be optimistic in 2021 because the forces now driving hunger are overpowering good intentions and lofty goals.

Among the most powerful and toxic of these forces are conflict, climate change, and COVID-19 three Cs that threaten to wipe out any progress that has been made against hunger in recent years, it added.

Roshanti Soren 

In the United States of Japan, a girl who became in playing tennis the global star. A young woman Naomi Osaka started her life journey as one of the most recognizable focus in tennis, a sport notorious for its loneliness. A 23-year-old Naomi Osaka goes through hers in front of the world, which focuses on her as a unique symbol, a Haitian, Japanese woman raised in the United States and representing Japan. Slowly she became more confident and stands up for her beliefs, especially about the Black Lives Matter moment. She pulls out of a tournament in protest, but she also famously plays her triumphant United States open campaign with the name of Black victims of police brutality inscribed on her masks. When asked about the message, she was trying to send, she eloquently replies “what was the message you got”?

The tone of the documentary, released in three parts, is melancholic. It stars her winning with her first Grand slam against her idol Serena William in 2018 under controversial circumstances. She learned about her tennis and moves out of her parents and house. She understood what is expected of her. It is a great challenge for her that she sacrifice her life . She trains, competes, attends interviews and photoshoots and take up endorsements, becoming one of the richest athletes in the world.

   All hopes rest on super Sindhu

 There is another person who achieve her goal there non but PV Sindhu, the badminton from Tokyo. PV Sindhu said her bronze medal at the Tokyo Olympic was culmination of a team effort, with everyone involved in her journey making several sacrifices to help her step onto the podium.What is planning and effort, of P.V Sindhu is. It has been a really tough year in the run-up to the Olympics. And this bronze medal would not have been possible, but for so much planning and effort. she said that well, if she keeps playing well and winning tournaments then the world no.1 can also be a certainty. 

Five years after securing a silver on her Olympic debt, reigning world champion P. V Sindhu will lead India’s guest to bring home an elusive gold medal as the Tokyo Games badminton competition begins here on Saturday. Sindhu will be desperate to lay her hands on the gold this time around as she begins her campaign inn Group. J which also comprise Hong Kong’s cluing Ngan YI and Israel’s Ksenia Polikarpove.

NEW DELHI: India logged 16,862 new coronavirus infections taking the total tally of COVID-19 cases to 3,40,37,592, while the active cases declined to 2,03,678, the lowest in 216 days, according to the Union Health Ministry data updated on Friday.

The daily rise in new coronavirus infections has been below 30,000 for 21 straight days and less than 50,000 daily new cases have been reported for 110 consecutive days now.

The active cases comprise 0.60 per cent of the total infections, the lowest since March 2020, while the national COVID-19 recovery rate was recorded at 98.07 per cent, the highest since March 2020, the ministry said.

A decrease of 2,908 cases has been recorded in the active COVID-19 caseload in a span of 24 hours.

As many as 11,80,148 tests were conducted on Thursday taking the total cumulative tests conducted so far for detection of COVID-19 in the country to 58,88,44,673.

The daily positivity rate was recorded at 1.43 per cent.

It has been less than three per cent for last 46 days.

The weekly positivity rate was recorded at 1.42 per cent.

It has been below three per cent for the last 112 days, according to the ministry.

The number of people who have recuperated from the disease surged to 3,33,82,100, while the case fatality rate was recorded at 1.33 per cent.

The cumulative doses administered in the country so far under the nationwide COVID-19 vaccination drive has exceeded 97.14 crore.

India’s COVID-19 tally had crossed the 20-lakh mark on August 7, 2020, 30 lakh on August 23, 40 lakh on September 5 and 50 lakh on September 16.

It went past 60 lakh on September 28, 70 lakh on October 11, crossed 80 lakh on October 29, 90 lakh on November 20 and surpassed the one-crore mark on December 19.

India crossed the grim milestone of two crore on May 4 and three crore on June 23.

The 379 new fatalities include 174 from Haryana, 96 from Kerala and 35 from Maresharashtra.

Haryana added the death figures after the report of the State Death Audit Committee, the ministry said.

A total of 4,51,814 deaths have been reported so far in the country including 1,39,705 from Maharashtra, 37,922 from Karnataka, 35,853 from Tamil Nadu, 26,667 from Kerala, 25,089 from Delhi, 22,897 from Uttar Pradesh and 18,945 from West Bengal.

The ministry stressed that more than 70 per cent of the deaths occurred due to comorbidities.

“Our figures are being reconciled with the Indian Council of Medical Research,” the ministry said on its website, adding that state-wise distribution of figures is subject to further verification and reconciliation.

NEW DELHI: Petrol and diesel prices were hiked for the second consecutive day across the country on Friday.

Petrol prices increased by Rs 0.35 to Rs 105.14 per litre in the national capital while the price of diesel was raised by the same amount to Rs 93.87 per litre.

In the financial capital of the country, Mumbai, the petrol prices were raised by Rs 0.34 to Rs 111.09 per litre and diesel by Rs 0.38 to Rs 101.78 per litre.

Petrol and diesel have been priced at Rs 105.76 per litre and Rs 96.98 per litre respectively in West Bengal’s Kolkata and Rs 98.26 per litre and Rs 102.40 per litre in Chennai respectively.

Oil companies started raising auto fuel prices last week. The pause on the prices on October 12 and 13 came after a seven-day consecutive rise. Today, the prices were raised again for the second consecutive day after a two-day pause.

Telecom Secretary K Rajaraman has asked state-owned telecom research and development organisation C-DoT to start working on 6G and other futuristic technologies in order to catch up with the global market in time.

As per theoretical calculations, peak data download speed of 5G is pegged at 20 gigabit per second (gbps).

However, Vodafone Idea has claimed to have achieved the highest peak speed of 3.7 gbps during trials in India. “The telecom secretary has stressed upon C-DoT to keep track of emerging technologies, aligned with the technology life cycle.

He has asked C-DOT to start working on 6G and other futuristic technologies in order to catch up with the market in time,” the Centre for Development of Telematics (C-DoT ) said in the statement.

5G speed

5G network can offer speed of downloading of data to a maximum of 20 Gbps. The maximum speed of data download has reached 3.7 Gbps during testing of 5G network in India. The three companies Airtel, Vi and Jio have conducted speed tests on data downloads up to 3 Gbps in 5G network trials.

6G speed

6G is the sixth generation of wireless technology. A 6G network follows up on 4G and 5G, building on the revamped infrastructure and advanced capacity currently being established on millimeter-wave 5G networks. Using higher-frequency radio bands, it will give networks much faster speeds and lower latency, able to support sophisticated mobile devices and systems like automated cars.

It is expected a maximum of 1000Gbps downloading of data in the 6G network. Media reports said that LG has also started 6G trails and the company had recently started trialling the 6G network in Germany. According to the report, the data was sent and received at a distance of 100 metres during the test. In the 6G network, one can download a 6 GB movie in just 51 seconds at a speed of 1000 megabytes per second.

Highlights of the 6G network

• 6G network will be 50 times faster than 5G
• The 6G network in Japan is expected to be launched by 2030
• Apart from Japan, South Korea, China and Finland are preparing for a 6G network
• According to a report, millions are being spent in the European Union for the 6G network

NEW DELHI: A revamped Air India under the Tata Group will be a real challenge while new airline Akasa Air will be a far less competitive force for the next two-three years, IndiGo CEO Ronojoy Dutta said on Wednesday.

“Akasa is a far less competitive force for now or for the next two-three years. They will have to grow and grow slowly, get the slots, get the planes. They are not going to come out of the box, raring to go. There will be a slow build.

“And against that, I think we have good defences. We are the lowest cost carrier. It will be tough for anyone to get their costs lower than us,” Dutta said in a pre-recorded interview at an event organised by aviation consultancy firm CAPA. Whatever numbers anyone looks at, “we are running a damn good airline” with very low costs and with a great network, he added.

“In the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, we opened nine new domestic stations,” Dutta said.

“So, for a new entrant, it will be tougher to compete with us. But (new) Air India — that is the real challenge for us,” he added.

On October 8, the government announced that Talace Private Limited, a wholly-owned subsidiary of Tata Sons, has beaten a consortium led by SpiceJet promoter Ajay Singh by offering Rs 18,000 crore to win the bid to acquire debt-laden Air India.

Dutta said Air India will be a formidable force under the Tata Group and IndiGo does not take it lightly at all.

“Internationally, they will be a strong competitor. Domestically, they have now three carriers — Vistara, AirAsia India and Air India — all put together.

So they will be tough competition. I see them as a formidable force,” he noted.

Dutta said IndiGo is currently operating approximately 85 per cent of its pre-Covid domestic flights and around 40 per cent of its pre-Covid international flights.

“We are not growing a lot in the next 18 months or so.

After that, we start growing,” he stated.

NEW DELHI:  Police in Uttar Pradesh’s Gautam Buddh Nagar district on Wednesday said they have arrested the key accused in a gangrape case of a 55-year-old Scheduled Caste woman in Jewar three days ago. 

The incident has snowballed into a political controversy with opposition parties such as the BSP and the Congress hitting out at the BJP government in Uttar Pradesh over the issue of women safety.

“Accused Mahendra was arrested on Wednesday from a spot near his village in Jewar. He was picked up by a joint team of the Jewar police, the Special Operations Group and the SWAT,” said police.

“A reward of Rs 25,000 was announced on information leading to the arrest of Mahendra in the wake of the incident in which another person has already been arrested and sent to jail,” he added.

An FIR in connection with the incident has been lodged under IPC sections 376D (gangrape), 352 (punishment for assault or criminal force) and 506 (criminal intimidation), police said.