Skip to main content

Nobel Prize for Peace 2020

 


Why in News

The 2020 Nobel Peace Prize has been awarded to the World Food Programme (WFP), a United Nations (UN) agency, for its efforts to combat hunger, bettering conditions for peace in conflict-affected areas and preventing the use of hunger as a weapon of war and conflict.

  • Other 2020 Nobel Prizes for Literature, Chemistry, Physics and Medicine have already been announced.

Key Points

  • World Food Programme:
    • It was established in 1961 by the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) and the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and became a full-fledged UN programme in 1965.
    • Headquarter: Rome, Italy.
  • Significance and Achievements:
    • Eradicating hunger is one of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG 2: Zero Hunger) to be achieved by 2030 and WFP is the UN’s primary agency that works towards this goal.
    • Currently, it is the world’s largest humanitarian agency combating hunger.
    • In 2019, it assisted 97 million people, the largest number since 2012, in 88 countries. The same year, it delivered about 4.4 million tonnes of food, purchased USD 1.7 billion worth of food from 91 countries, and USD 762 million worth of goods and services from 156 countries.
  • Data on Hunger:
    • According to the WFP, there are 690 million hungry people around the world and around 60% of them live in countries affected by conflict.
      • It highlights that people living in countries with long-running crises are more than twice as likely to be undernourished than people elsewhere (2.5 times as much).
    • The number of hungry people is expected to increase further due to Covid-19 pandemic, which has led to earnings losses, made food more expensive and has disrupted supply chains.
    • The WFP estimates suggest that by 2030, nearly half of the global poor will be living in fragile and conflict-affected situations.

WFP’s Role in India

  • It has been working in India since 1963.
  • It focuses on reforms in the Targeted Public Distribution System (TPDS) and provides policy inputs, advocacy and technical assistance for improving access to food.
  • The WFP has proposed unique initiatives like Automatic Grain Dispensing Machine (Annapurti) and Mobile Storage Units for the effective implementation of TPDS.
    • Annapurti allows beneficiaries to withdraw their foodgrain quota accurately and at a time of their choice through automatic grain dispensing machines.
  • WFP India has completed a pilot on rice fortification used in the government’s Mid-day Meals scheme.
  • During the pandemic, WFP India worked with the central and state governments and has also prepared a guidance note for the reopening of schools.
    • For example, it signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with the Uttar Pradesh State Rural Livelihood Mission (SRLM) to provide technical assistance for setting up supplementary nutrition production units.
Labels:
Location: India

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A leaf was plucked from a plant on a sunny day and kept for 2 minutes in boiling water. It was subsequently immersed in boiling alcohol and treated with iodine solution. What will be the final colour of the leaf after the test?

 The final color of the leaf after the described test would likely be a bluish-black color. The process described is a common laboratory experiment known as the iodine test for starch. When a leaf is plucked from a plant, it contains starch. The boiling water breaks down the cell membranes and denatures the enzymes, effectively stopping any metabolic processes. Boiling alcohol acts as a solvent to remove chlorophyll from the leaf. Finally, when the leaf is treated with iodine solution, it reacts with the remaining starch, resulting in the formation of a bluish-black color. This color change indicates the presence of starch in the leaf.
Post a Comment
Read more

Academic Freedom in India

  Why in News? India has scored considerably low in the international  Academic Freedom Index (AFI)  with a score of 0.352. Academic freedom,  in general, refers to a scholar's freedom to express ideas without risk of official interference or professional disadvantage. Points to Remember:- About the Academic Freedom Index: It has been  published by Global Public Policy Institute  as a part of a global time-series dataset (1900-2019) in close cooperation with  Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Scholars at Risk, and the V‑Dem Institute. It  compares  levels of academic freedom worldwide and enhances the understanding of its curtailments. The AFI used  eight components  to evaluate the scores: the freedom to research and teach, freedom of academic exchange and dissemination, institutional autonomy, campus integrity, freedom of academic and cultural expression, constitutional protection of academic freedom, international...
Post a Comment
Read more

If the red blood cells (RBCs) of human blood are isolated and are diluted in normal saline (an isotonic solution to blood), what will happen to the RBCs?

If the red blood cells (RBCs) of human blood are isolated and diluted in normal saline, which is an isotonic solution to blood, the RBCs will remain intact and maintain their normal shape and function. An isotonic solution has the same concentration of solutes as the cytoplasm of the RBCs. When the RBCs are placed in an isotonic solution like normal saline, there will be no net movement of water across the cell membrane. As a result, the RBCs will neither shrink nor swell, and their osmotic equilibrium will be maintained. The shape of the RBCs, typically biconcave discs, will be preserved, allowing them to continue their vital functions, such as carrying oxygen and carbon dioxide throughout the body. In summary, diluting RBCs in a normal saline solution, which is isotonic to blood, will not cause any significant changes to the RBCs, and they will remain functional and retain their normal shape.
Post a Comment
Read more