India ranks 107th out of 121 countries on Global Hunger Index

• The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.
• It is prepared jointly by Irish aid agency Concern Worldwide and German organisation Welt Hunger Hilfe.
• GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators:
  • Undernourishment (share of the population with insufficient caloric intake),
  • child stunting (the share of children under age five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic under-nutrition),
  • child wasting (acute under-nutrition in children under age five with low weight for their height),
  • child mortality (the mortality rate of children under the age of five).
• The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger, where zero is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst.

Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2022:

• India’s score of 29.1 places it in the ‘serious’ category.
• India''s GHI score has decelerated - from 38.8 in 2000 to the range of 28.2 - 29.1 between 2014 and 2022.
• India also ranks below Sri Lanka (64), Nepal (81), Bangladesh (84), and Pakistan (99). Afghanistan (109) is the only country in South Asia that performs worse than India on the index.
• Seventeen countries, including China, Turkey, and Kuwait, shared the top rank with GHI score of less than five.

Electoral bonds scheme is absolutely transparent mode of political funding: Centre to SC

• The electoral bonds system was introduced in 2017 by way of a money bill introducing amendments in the Finance Act and the Representation of People Act.
• It was implemented in 2018.
• The electoral bonds are issued in multiples of Rs 1,000, Rs 10,000, Rs 1 lakh, Rs 10 lakh and Rs 1 crore.
• State Bank of India is the only bank authorised to sell electoral bonds.
• Buyers can donate the bonds to a party of their choice and the bonds have to be cashed by the party through its verified account within 15 days.
• No payment shall be made to any political party if the electoral bond is deposited after expiry of the validity period of 15 days.
• Eligible political parties are allotted a verified account by the Election Commission of India (ECI) and the electoral bond transactions can be made only through this account.
• Buyers of the bonds have to submit full KYC details at the time of buying. However, the beneficiary political party is not required to reveal the identity of the entity that has given it the bonds.
• Electoral Bonds can be purchased by a person, who is a citizen of India or a company incorporated or established in India.
• Only political parties registered under section 29A of the Representation of the Peoples Act, 1951 are eligible to receive electoral bonds.
• Further, in order to be eligible the party must have secured at least one per cent of the votes polled in the most recent Lok Sabha or State elections.
• The bonds are available for purchase for a period of 10 days each in the beginning of every quarter, i.e. in January, April, July and October, as specified by the Central Government.
• An additional period of 30 days shall be specified by the Central Government in the year of Lok Sabha elections.
• However, there have been some occasions when the government has deviated from the specified schedule for issuance of these bonds.

Bureau of Indian Standards, Mumbai organises Conclave –“Manak Mahotsav” on occasion of World Standards Day

• World Standards Day is celebrated every year on October 14.
• This day, also known as International Standards Day, strives to educate consumers, policymakers, and businesses about the value of standardisation.
• The International Organization for Standardisation (ISO) was founded in 1947.

Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS):

• BIS is the National Standard Body working under the Ministry of consumer affairs, food and public distribution, Government of India.
• It is established by the Bureau of Indian Standards Act, 2016 which came into effect on 12 October 2017.
• Objective is the harmonious development of the activities of standardization, product testing and quality certification of goods in the country.

Nuclear-powered INS Arihant carries out successful launch of SLBM

• The capability of being able to launch nuclear weapons from submarines has great strategic importance in the context of achieving a nuclear triad, especially in the light of the ‘no first use’ policy of India.
• INS Arihant is India’s nuclear-powered ballistic missile capable submarine, classified under the SSBN programme.
• It was commissioned in 2016.
• INS Arihant is presently armed with K-15 SLBM with a range of 750 km.
• The next in the class, INS Arighat is reported to have been launched in 2017 and is said to have been undergoing sea trials.
• The SSBN is a hull classification symbol for nuclear-powered ballistic missile carrying submarines.
• Operations of the SLBMs from the SSBN are under the purview of Strategic Forces Command which is part of India’s Nuclear Command Authority.

Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs):

• The family of indigenously developed Submarine Launched Ballistic Missiles (SLBMs), sometimes referred to as K-family missiles are codenamed after Dr APJ Abdul Kalam.
• Under the SLBM family, missiles of various ranges have been developed including K-15 also called Sagarika, which has a range of at least 750 km.
• India has also developed and tested the K-4 missiles from the same family, which have a range of 3,500 km.

South Africa: 7th edition of IBSAMAR helds at Port Elizabeth

• It is a joint multinational maritime exercise, among the Indian, Brazilian and South Africa navies.
• The objectives of the exercise included strengthening maritime relations, promoting joint operational military training, combating maritime crimes, securing Sea Lines of Communication and enhancing interoperability to pursue common evolutions at sea.
• The Indian Navy was represented in it by the guided missile frigate, INS Tarkash, a Chetak helicopter and MARCOS Special Forces.
• The first edition of the IBSAMAR naval exercise was organised in 2008 to unite on democratic values, economic interests and maritime cooperation.
• Goa hosted the fifth edition of IBSAMAR during the year 2016.
• The previous edition of IBSAMAR (IBSAMAR VI) was conducted off Simons Town, South Africa in 2018.

India participates at the 6th East Asia Summit Education Minister’s Meeting

• The East Asia Summit (EAS) is the Indo-Pacific''s premier forum for strategic dialogue.
• It was established in 2005.
• The EAS has 18 members:
  • The ten ASEAN countries (Brunei, Cambodia, Indonesia, Laos, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, Vietnam) along with Australia, China, India, Japan, New Zealand, the Republic of Korea, Russia and the United States.
• The EAS membership represents around 54% of the world’s population and accounts for 58% of global GDP.
• Six priority areas of regional cooperation within the framework of the EAS
  • Environment and Energy,
  • Education,
  • Finance,
  • Global Health Issues and Pandemic Diseases,
  • Natural Disaster Management, and
  • ASEAN Connectivity

PM Modi to launch 75 digital banking units across 75 districts on Oct 16

• As part of the Union budget speech for 2022-23, the Finance Minister had announced the setting up of the 75 DBUs in 75 districts of the country to commemorate the 75 years of independence of our country.
• 11 Public Sector Banks, 12 Private Sector Banks and one Small Finance Bank are participating in the endeavour.
• A digital banking unit is a specialised fixed point business unit or hub housing certain minimum digital infrastructure for delivering digital banking products and services as well as servicing existing financial products and services digitally in self-service mode at any time.
• The objective is to ensure benefits of digital banking reach every nook and corner of the country and will cover all the States and Union territories.
• DBUs will be brick and mortar outlets which will provide a variety of digital banking facilities to people such as opening of savings account, balance-check, print passbook, transfer of funds etc.
• They will spread Digital Financial Literacy and special emphasis will be given to customer education on cyber security awareness and safeguards.