Current Affair 1:

Financial Intermediary Fund (FIF) of World Bank

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The devastating human, economic, and social cost of COVID-19 has highlighted the urgent need for coordinated action to build stronger health systems and mobilize additional resources for pandemic prevention, preparedness, and response (PPR).

The World Bank’s Board of Executive Directors today approved the establishment of a financial intermediary fund (FIF) that will finance critical investments to strengthen pandemic PPR capacities at national, regional, and global levels, with a focus on low- and middle-income countries

You don’t need more than this.

Current Affair 2:

The latest State of Food Security and Nutrition report: FAO

 

You can’t complete entire report. Neither there is a need. Few images and few points form report needed to know. Read.

The report was jointly published today by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), the UN World Food Programme (WFP) and the World Health Organization (WHO).

Important points:

The numbers paint a grim picture:

 

 

 

1. 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.
2. After remaining relatively unchanged since 2015, the proportion of people affected by hunger jumped in 2020 and continued to rise in 2021, to 9.8 percent of the world population. This compares with 8 percent in 2019 and 9.3 percent in 2020.
3. Around 2.3 billion people in the world (29.3 percent) were moderately or severely food insecure in 2021 – 350 million more compared to before the outbreak of the COVID‑19 pandemic.
4. The gender gap in food insecurity continued to rise in 2021 - 31.9 percent of women in the world were moderately or severely food insecure, compared to 27.6 percent of men – a gap of more than 4 percentage points, compared with 3 percentage points in 2020.
5. Almost 3.1 billion people could not afford a healthy diet in 2020, up 112 million from 2019, reflecting the effects of inflation in consumer food prices stemming from the economic impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic.
6. An estimated 45 million children under the age of five were suffering from wasting. 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.
7. Progress is being made on exclusive breastfeeding, with nearly 44 percent of infants under six months of age being exclusively breastfed worldwide in 2020.
8. Looking forward, projections are that nearly 670 million people (8 percent of the world population) will still be facing hunger in 2030 – even if a global economic recovery is taken into consideration. This is a similar number to 2015, when the goal of ending hunger, food insecurity and malnutrition by the end of this decade was launched under the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development.

 

Current Affair 3:

Advantages of Na-ion batteries

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Basically here, you have read about advantages of Na-ion batteries.

Scientists have used nano-materials to develop Na-ion-based batteries and supercapacitors, which can be rapidly charged and have integrated them in e-cycles. The low-cost Na-ion-based technologies would be cheap and are expected to reduce the cost of the e-cycles significantly.

Sodium-ion (Na-ion) batteries have triggered academic and commercial interest as a possible complementary technology to lithium-ion batteries because of the high natural abundance of sodium and the consequent low costs of Na-ion batteries.

These sodium materials are cheaper than Li-based materials, high performing, and can be scaled up to industrial-level production.

The Na-ion cell can also be totally discharged to zero volt, similar to a capacitor, making it a safer option in comparison to many other storage technologies.

Na-ion batteries can be charged rapidly.

With further development, the price of these vehicles can be brought down to the range of Rs. 10-15 K, making them nearly 25% cheaper than Li-ion storage technologies-based e-cycles.

As disposal strategies of Na-ion-based batteries would be simpler, it can also help in addressing the climate mitigation issue.

Current Affair 4:

Toy imports down by 70% and exports up 61% over last three years

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Toy imports down by 70% and exports up 61% over last three years as Make in India yields positive results for the sector.

In the last few years, toy industry has benefitted from a number of interventions by the government and results show the success of Make in India programme.  Following are the interventions by the Govt. for the Toy sector:

1) Directorate General of Foreign Trade (DGFT) mandated sample testing of each consignment and no permission for sale unless the quality testing is successful.

2) Basic Custom Duty (BCD) on Toys increased from 20% to 60% in February, 2020.

3) The Government issued Toys (Quality Control) Order, 2020 through which toys have been brought under compulsory Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS) certification with effect from 01/01/2021. As per the Quality Control Order (QCO), every toy shall conform to the requirements of relevant Indian Standard and bear the Standard Mark under a licence from BIS. This QCO is applicable to both domestic manufacturers as well as foreign manufacturers who intend to export their toys to India.

4) Toys have been put under restricted category for imports which means only few category of toys can be imported with specific permissions.

Some Facts:

1) Toy Industry is labour intensive

2) In 2017-18, out of the total imports, 90% import of toys was from China.

3) China makes 70 percent of the toys sold worldwide.

4) And the irony is 'India is home to 25% of world’s children aged between 0 and 12 years'

A closer look at what has held India back from making it big in this sector reveals one important flaw — labour laws. But when govt. tries to reform the labour laws and allow for hiring and firing then we start protesting. Because we are willing to slog for 12-14 hours to get a Govt. job or a secured job but we are not willing to work hard through our entire career. That's where we as a nation fail. Our thinking is ..kisi tarah se ek baar exam nikaal lein fir life long secure and relax (English translation: somehow at any cost get a secure job and then relax for lifelong). Our mind has been tuned like this since long. We should be willing to work hard through our entire life and then only we can become a developed country or collectively we will win.

 

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