Current Indian Economy

Indian Economic System(UPPCS)

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Indian Economy - Understanding the basics of Indian economic system

State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World(SOFI) 2022 Report

Context: Recently, FAO, International Fund for Agriculture Development, UNICEF, UN world food Programme and WHO have jointly released SOFI 2022.

Published by: Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations(FAO), International Fund for Agricultural Development(IFAD), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), UN World Food Programme(WFP) and the World Health Organization(WHO).

Hunger: As many as 828 million people were affected by hunger in 2021 – 46 million people more from a year earlier and 150 million more from 2019.
In terms of percentage, the proportion of people affected by hunger jumped in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, to 9.8% of the world population.This compares with 8% in 2019 and 9.3% in 2020.
Gender Gap in Food Security: The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2021 – 31.9% of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 27.6% of men – a gap of more than 4 percentage points, compared with 3 percentage points in 2020.
Healthy Diet: Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up from 112 million in 2019 showing the effects of inflation on consumer food prices. The inflation stemmed from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and the measures put in place to contain it.
Malnutrition: An estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from wasting, the deadliest form of malnutrition which increases children’s risk of death by up to 12 times.
Furthermore, 149 million children under the age of five had stunted growth and development due to a chronic lack of essential nutrients in their diets while 39 million were overweight.

Undernourishment: The number of undernourished people in India declined to 224.3 million in 2019–21 from 247.8 million in 2004-06.
In percentage terms, the prevalence of undernourishment in the total population in India stood at 21.6% in 2004-06 and declined to 16.3% in 2019-21.
Healthy Diet: In India, people who were unable to afford a healthy diet touched 973.3 million in 2020 or nearly 70.5%, up from 948.6 million in 2019 (69.4%).
Stunting: The prevalence of stunting in children under 5 years of age declined to 30.9% in 2020 from 41.7% in 2012.
Overweight: The prevalence of overweight children under five years of age was 1.9% in 2020 from 2.4% in 2012.
Obesity: The prevalence of obesity in India’s adult population increased to 3.9% in 2016 from 3.1% in 2012.
Anaemic Women: The number of anaemic women aged 15 to 49 years declined marginally from 53.2% in 2012 to 53% in 2019.

Key Recommendations

Focus on nutritious food: The report suggested repurposing food and agricultural support to target nutritious foods, to make healthy diets less costly, more affordable and equitably for all.
Reduce trade barriers: Governments could do more to reduce trade barriers for nutritious foods, such as fruits, vegetables and pulses.
Engagement: With government and civil society to remove unequal powers within agrifood systems.