UPSC Essentials | Weekly news express — Global Hunger Index, Periodic Labour Force Survey, and more: Key takeaways and Points to ponder

3) What is the government’s push for electric vehicle?

4) How our expert views the Periodic Labour Force Survey 2022-23?

And more…

PLEASE NOTE: Israel-Hamas war will be covered separately as a special article. Stay tuned!

Global Hunger Index 2023

WHY IN NEWS?

— India ranked 111th out of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index 2023, a standing the government termed “erroneous and having malafide intent”.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

— In the index released, India has a score of 28.7, indicating a serious level of hunger. The country came after neighbouring countries Pakistan (102nd), Bangladesh (81st), Nepal (69th) and Sri Lanka (60th).

— The Global Hunger Report 2023 released by Concern Worldwide and Welt Hunger Hilfe, Non-Government Organisations from Ireland and Germany respectively.

— However, India fared better than South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara, which recorded a score of 27 each.

— While the rate of undernourishment in India stood at 16.6 percent and under-five mortality at 3.1 percent, the prevalence of anaemia in women aged between 15 and 24 years stood at 58.1 percent.

— As per the index, India also has the highest child wasting rate in the world at 18.7 percent, reflecting acute undernutrition. Wasting is measured based on children’s weight relative to their height.

— In this report, “hunger” refers to the index based on the four component indicators (undernourishment, child stunting, child wasting, and child mortality). Taken together, the component indicators reflect deficiencies in calories as well as in micronutrients.

What is the government’s stand?

— The government, however, rejected the index calling it a flawed measure of “hunger” that does not reflect India’s true position.

— The Women and Child Development Ministry said the index suffers from “serious methodological issues and shows a malafide intent”.

“The index is an erroneous measure of hunger and suffers from serious methodological issues. Three out of the four indicators used for calculation of the index are related to the health of children and cannot be representative of the entire population. The fourth and most important indicator ‘Proportion of Undernourished (PoU) population’ is based on an opinion poll conducted on a very small sample size of 3,000,” it said.

— The ministry said that since April 2023, the measurement data of children under five years uploaded on the Poshan Tracker has consistently increased – from 6.34 crore in April 2023 to 7.24 crore in September 2023.

— “The percentage of child wasting, as seen on the Poshan Tracker, has been consistently below 7.2 per cent, month-on-month, as compared to the value of 18.7 per cent used for child wasting in the Global Hunger Index 2023,” the ministry said in a statement.

— The ministry further said two other indicators, namely stunting and wasting, are outcomes of complex interactions of various other factors like sanitation, genetics, environment and utilisation of food intake apart from hunger which is taken as the causative/outcome factor for stunting and wasting in the GHI.

— Also, there is hardly any evidence that the fourth indicator — child mortality — is an outcome of hunger, it said.
— India ranked 107th out of 121 countries in the 2022 edition of the Global Hunger Index (GHI), a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels.

— The 2023 Global Hunger Index (GHI) shows that, after many years of advancement up to 2015, progress against hunger worldwide remains largely at a standstill. The 2023 GHI score for the world is 18.3, considered moderate and less than one point below the world’s 2015 GHI score of 19.1.

— Furthermore, since 2017, the prevalence of undernourishment, one of the indicators used in the calculation of GHI scores, has been on the rise, and the number of undernourished people has climbed from 572 million to about 735 million.

— The GHI said the compounding impacts of climate change, conflicts, economic shocks, the global pandemic, and the Russia-Ukraine war have exacerbated social and economic inequalities and slowed or reversed previous progress in reducing hunger in many countries.

JUST FYI

(Source of the following definitions is globalhungerindex.org)

Undernourishment: the share of the population whose caloric intake is insufficient
(It is used as a lead indicator for international hunger reduction targets, including Sustainable Development Goal 2 (Zero Hunger))

Child stunting: the share of children under the age of five who have low height for their age, reflecting chronic undernutrition;

Child wasting: the share of children under the age of five who have low weight for their height, reflecting acute undernutrition;
(They are used as nutrition indicators for SDG 2 (Zero Hunger))

Child mortality: the share of children who die before their fifth birthday, reflecting in part the fatal mix of inadequate nutrition and unhealthy environments.

Hunger is usually refers to the distress associated with a lack of sufficient calories. FAO defines “food deprivation, or undernourishment, as the habitual consumption of too few calories to provide the minimum dietary energy an individual requires to live a healthy and productive life, given that person’s sex, age, stature, and physical activity level.”

Undernutrition goes beyond calories and signifies deficiencies in any or all of the following: energy, protein, and/or essential vitamins and minerals. Undernutrition is the result of inadequate intake of food in terms of either quantity or quality, poor utilization of nutrients in the body due to infections or other illnesses, or a combination of these immediate causes. Many factors are cause it, for example, household food insecurit, inadequate maternal health or childcare practices, or inadequate access to health services, safe water, and sanitation.

Malnutrition refers to both undernutrition (problems caused by deficiencies) and overnutrition (problems caused by unbalanced diets that involve consuming too many calories in relation to requirements, with or without low intake of micronutrient-rich foods). Note: While overnutrition is an important concern, the GHI focuses specifically on issues relating to undernutrition.

With inputs from PTI and globalhungerindex.org

Point to ponder: Methodology of Global Hunger Index has been rightly criticised. But conversation must go on. Do you agree? 

1. MCQ

Consider the following statements and answer the question below:

1. Malnutrition refers to both undernutrition and overnutrition, according to global hunger index.

2. As per the latest global hunger index, India has the highest child wasting rate in the world.

Which of the above statement/s is/are correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Aditya L1 corrects trajectory as it moves closer to Sun

WHY IN NEWS?

— ISRO announced that it had carried out a Trajectory Correction Maneuver (TCM) for its spacecraft Aditya L1, to ensure it reaches its destination at the Sun Earth Lagrangian point 1.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

— The Aditya L1 is to undertake a 110-day journey through space, one of the longest for an Indian spacecraft since the 2013-2014 Mars mission.

— ISRO scientists had indicated that a TCM would be necessary for Aditya L1 soon after the spacecraft began its journey toward the L1 point on September 19, after orbiting the earth for 17 days.

— Unlike lunar missions, which take about three weeks to cover the 384,400 km distance to the moon, deep space missions to Mars (distance of 225 million km) and the Lagrangian Point 1 (distance of 1.5 million km) take several months (Mars around 11 months and L1 around four months).

— The longer distances require the mission to incorporate trajectory correction plans using orbit determination calculations, to ensure the spacecraft remains on course for its destination.

— The Mars Orbiter Mission undertaken by ISRO between November 5, 2013 to September 24, 2014 required three TCMs on November 14, 2013, June 11, 2014 and September 22, 2014.

What are Trajectory Correction Maneuvers?

— The Aditya L1 spacecraft is to be injected into an orbit around L1. For this to be achieved, the spacecraft has to travel on a planned trajectory.

— After the Trans Lagrangian Point 1 Insertion manoeuvre on September 19, scientists found that there could be trajectory errors that would need correction.

— “There is a provision in the mission for this sort of manoeuvre, which is called a trim manoeuvre. This has been part of the mission plans since Chandrayaan 1 (2008). For every orbit-raising manoeuvre, we look at what was the orbit realised. If there is something to be done, we have to do it at the earliest,” said former ISRO scientist M Annadurai, who was closely associated with the Chandrayaan 1 and Mars Orbiter Mission.

— In the case of near destinations like the moon, the trajectory corrections have to be done in the span of a week, and for longer destinations, as early as possible.

— “The Aditya L1 is making a long journey. If there is a small deviation at the start, then over a month or three months, there could be implications,” the ISRO scientist said.

— Smaller corrections involve firing of engines on the spacecraft for shorter durations, which results in conserving of fuel. Bigger corrections need longer firing of the engines.

— “We have to assess how much correction is needed. It is a bit like assessing the petrol you want to fill,” Annadurai said.

— The manoeuvres are required only in deep space missions.

— The Mars Orbiter Mission witnessed three TCMs. The manoeuvres were carried out to ensure that the Mars Orbiters attained the right trajectory to reach a distance of 500 km (plus or minus 60 km) from the Red Planet. If the correction manoeuvres were not carried out, the spacecraft would have reached a distance of 723 km periapsis, ISRO scientists said at the time.

What is the orbit that Aditya L1 must achieve around the L1 point?

— When it reaches the L1 point around the second week of January 2024, Aditya-L1 will carry out a manoeuvre to enable it to orbit around L1, which is a balanced gravitational location between the Earth and the Sun.

— The spacecraft will spend its mission life “orbiting around L1 in an irregularly shaped orbit in a plane roughly perpendicular to the line joining the Earth and the Sun,” ISRO said.

— The L1 orbit is considered a challenge to acquire and maintain, and a few course corrections by firing of the engines may be needed in the mission life of the spacecraft.

“It is not like an orbit around a planetary body. There are three dimensions to the orbit while other orbits around a planet are two dimensional, either equator or polar. Both the gravities play a role and there is pulling and pushing,” an ISRO scientist said.

JUST FYI

Where is the Aditya-L1 mission going?

— As the ISRO release says, the spacecraft will be put in orbit around the L1 point, from where it will be able to observe the Sun without obstructions.

— A Lagrange point, as defined by NASA, is a position in space where “the gravitational pull of two large masses precisely equals the centripetal force required for a small object to move with them. These points in space can be used by spacecraft to reduce fuel consumption needed to remain in position.”

— Basically, this means that at that point, the gravitational attraction and repulsion between two heavenly bodies is such that an object placed between them will effectively stay in the same relative position while moving with them.

— The Lagrange points are named in honor of Italian-French mathematician Josephy-Louis Lagrange, and there are five of them: L1, L2, L3, L4, and L5. According to NASA, “The L1 point of the Earth-Sun system affords an uninterrupted view of the Sun and is currently home to the Solar and Heliospheric Observatory Satellite SOHO.”

The five Lagrange Points. (Photo courtesy: NASA)

— NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope is at L2. “What is special about this orbit is that it lets the telescope stay in line with the Earth as it moves around the Sun. This allows the satellite’s large sunshield to protect the telescope from the light and heat of the Sun and Earth (and Moon),” NASA’s website says.

What will the Aditya-L1 mission study?

— The spacecraft carries seven payloads to observe the photosphere [the deepest layer of the sun we can directly observe], chromosphere [the layer about 400 km and 2,100 km above the photosphere], and the outermost layers of the Sun (the corona), using electromagnetic and particle and magnetic field detectors. Of the seven playloads, four will directly study the Sun, and the remaining three will in situ study particles and fields at the Lagrange point L1, “thus providing important scientific studies of the propagatory effect of solar dynamics in the interplanetary medium,” ISRO says.

“The suits of Aditya L1 payloads are expected to provide most crucial informations to understand the problem of coronal heating, coronal mass ejection, pre-flare and flare activities and their characteristics, dynamics of space weather, propagation of particle and fields etc.,” the ISRO release says.

Why is it important to study the Sun?

— Every planet, including Earth and the exoplanets beyond the Solar System, evolves — and this evolution is governed by its parent star. The solar weather and environment affect the weather of the entire system. Variations in this weather can change the orbits of satellites or shorten their lives, interfere with or damage onboard electronics, and cause power blackouts and other disturbances on Earth. Knowledge of solar events is key to understanding space weather.

— To learn about and track Earth-directed storms, and to predict their impact, continuous solar observations are needed. Every storm that emerges from the Sun and heads towards Earth passes through L1.

Point to ponder: What is Aditya-L1 mission and its objectives?

2. MCQ:

Which of the statement/s below is/are correct?

1. Trajectory Correction Maneuvers (TCMs) are required only in deep space missions.

2. The Mars Orbiter Mission witnessed three TCMs.

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Large ozone hole detected over Antarctica

WHY IN NEWS?

— Satellite measurements over Antarctica have detected a giant hole in the ozone layer.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

By Deutsche Welle

— The hole, which scientists call an “ozone-depleted area” was 26 million square kilometers (10 million square miles) in size, roughly three times the size of Brazil.

— The European Space Agency Copernicus Sentinel-5P satellite made the recordings on September 16, 2023, as part of the EU’s environmental monitoring program.

— Claus Zehner, the agency’s mission manager for Copernicus Sentinel-5P, told DW that this is one of the biggest ozone holes they’ve ever seen.

— Experts believe the hole in the ozone is not likely to increase warming on the surface of Antarctica.

— The ozone layer is a trace gas in the stratosphere, one of the four layers of the Earth’s atmosphere.

— It functions as a protective gas shield that absorbs ultraviolet radiation, protecting humans and ecosystems from dangerous amounts of UV. Most skin cancers are caused by exposure to high amounts of UV radiation, so anything that shields us from UV rays helps reduce cancer rates.

— The size of the ozone hole over Antarctica fluctuates each year, opening each year in August and closing again in November or December.

— Zehner said the ozone hole opens up because of the rotation of the Earth causing specials winds over the closed landmass of Antarctica.

“The winds create a mini climate, creating a shield over Antarctica preventing it from mixing with surrounding air. When the winds die down, the hole closes,” he said.

— Scientists believe this year’s big ozone hole could be due to the volcanic eruptions at Hunga Tongain Tonga during December 2022 and January 2023.

ESA satellites detected a huge hole in the ozone layer in September. (contains modified Copernicus Sentinel data/processed DLR/ESA)

“Under normal conditions, gas released from a volcanic eruption stays below the level of the stratosphere, but this eruption sent a lot of water vapor into the stratosphere,” said Zehner.

— The water had an impact on the ozone layer through chemical reactions and changed its heating rate. The water vapor also contained other elements that can deplete ozone like bromine and iodine. “There isn’t much evidence the ozone hole is due to humans,” Zehner said.

— While this year’s Antarctic ozone hole was likely due to a volcanic eruption, scientists became aware that human activities were creating huge ozone holes in the 1970s.

— Ground and satellite-based measurements detected the holes, which were caused by widespread use of chemicals called chlorofluorocarbons.

“The culprit behind ozone depletion was not aerosols in aerosol cans, but the propellants we use as gases to propel the solutions inside. These gaseous propellants contain chlorine, which is released high in the stratosphere and depletes the ozone,” said Jim Haywood, a professor of atmospheric science at University of Exeter in the UK.

— The world took action after scientists raised alarm over the ozone holes, and quickly. In 1987,The Montreal Protocol was created to protect the ozone layer by phasing out the production of these harmful substances.

— The good news is that the protocol was effective — ozone holes got smaller in the decades after ozone-depleting gas emissions were controlled.

Is climate change reopening ozone holes?

— Scientists agree that ozone depletion is not a principal cause of global climate change.

— However, Haywood said there are signs that rising global temperatures could be having an impact on ozone holes. “Our mitigation of the ozone hole was working well since the 1980s, but in 2020 we were taken by surprise when the 2020 ozone hole was very deep and long lasting,” he told DW.

— The same was true for 2021. Research showed that the main reason for the large ozone hole in 2020 was due to the wildfires in southeastern Australia that year.

— Haywood said as the climate crisis carries on, with the Earth continuing to warm, fires are getting more common and more devastating around the globe.

“It’s been an amazing bad year for boreal fires in the Northern Hemisphere this year. If that continues to happen, we get more smoke injected into the stratosphere, and we might get more ozone depletion coming back,” said Haywood.

— It’s less clear what impact ozone holes have on the Earth’s climate. Some data shows that ozone holes actually contribute to cooling effects, as they reduce the greenhouse gas effect.

— But Haywood said there is evidence ozone holes changes the progression of the seasons.

“If you get ozone depletion, it takes longer for the hole to repair. This means you have a longer, more drawn out polar vortex, so you’ll have wintertime lasting that little bit longer,” he said.

Point to ponder: What to read in ozone hole size?

3. MCQ:

Which one of the following is associated with the issue of control and phasing out of the use of ozone depleting substances? (2015)

(a) Bretton Woods Conference

(b) Montreal Protocol

(c) Kyoto Protocol

(d) Nagoya Protocol

A push for electric vehicles

WHY IN NEWS?

— The Centre has amended a key law so that it can specify competitive royalty rates for the mining of three strategically significant minerals — lithium, niobium, and rare earth elements (REEs). The decision comes after the government removed six minerals, including lithium and niobium, from the list of ‘specified’ atomic minerals, which could set the stage for private sector participation through auctioning of concessions for these minerals.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Written by Anil Sasi

— These changes to the rules build on an earlier move to ease the issuing of mining leases and composite licences for 24 critical and strategic minerals, which are vital in key supply chains that include electric vehicle batteries, energy storage devices, and high-end motors.

What are these minerals?

* Lithium is a soft, silvery-white alkali metal, which is a vital ingredient of rechargeable lithium-ion batteries that power electric vehicles, laptops, and mobile phones. In February, ‘inferred’ lithium resources of 5.9 million tonnes were established in Jammu and Kashmir, the largest deposit in India.

* Niobium is a light grey, crystalline metal with a layer of oxide on its surface, which makes it resistant to corrosion.

It is used in alloys, including stainless steel, to improve their strength, particularly at low temperatures.
Alloys containing niobium are used in jet engines, beams and girders for buildings, and oil and gas pipelines. Given its superconducting properties, it is also used in magnets for particle accelerators and MRI scanners.

The main source of this element is the mineral columbite, which is found in countries such as Canada, Brazil, Australia, and Nigeria.

* REEs or rare earths are a group of 17 very similar lustrous silvery-white soft heavy metals. Rare earth compounds are used in electrical and electronic components, lasers, and magnetic materials.

What has government done and why is it relevant?

— The government has specified new royalty rates by amending the Second Schedule of the Mines and Minerals (Development and Regulation) Act, 1957. Currently, Item No. 55 of The Second Schedule of the MMDR Act, 1957, specifies a royalty rate of 12% of the average sale price (ASP) for minerals that are not specifically listed in that Schedule. This rate is much higher than global benchmarks.

— The lowering of the royalty rates effectively aligns India’s royalty rates with global benchmarks, and paves the way for commercial exploitation of these minerals through auctions, which can be conducted by the Centre or states. A competitive royalty rate ensures that bidders would be attracted to the auctions.

— After the Cabinet’s decision on Wednesday, lithium mining will attract a royalty of 3% based on the London Metal Exchange price. Niobium too, will be subject to 3% royalty calculated on the ASP, in case of both primary and secondary sources. REEs will have a royalty of 1% based on the ASP of the Rare Earth Oxide (the ore in which the REE is most commonly found).

— The Ministry of Mines has laid down the way to calculate the ASP of these minerals, on the basis of which the bid parameters will be determined.

— The idea is to encourage domestic mining, so that imports of these minerals can be lowered, and related end-use industries such as electric vehicles (EVs) and energy storage solutions can be set up. These critical minerals are seen as an important prerequisite for India to meet its commitment to energy transition, and to achieve net-zero emissions by 2070.

JUST FYI

— LITHIUM: India currently imports all the lithium it needs. The domestic exploration push goes beyond the J&K exploration, and includes exploratory work to extract lithium from the brine pools of Rajasthan and Gujarat, and the mica belts of Odisha and Chhattisgarh.

— India is a late mover in attempts to enter the lithium value chain. This is a time when EVs are seen as a sector ripe for disruption — the next couple of years are widely expected to be an inflection point for battery tech, with several potential improvements to Li-ion technology.

— More than 165 crore lithium batteries are estimated to have been imported into India between FY17 and FY20 for an estimated $3.3 billion. China is a major source of lithium-ion energy storage products that are imported into India.

— REEs: The rare earths constitute another hurdle in the EV supply chain. Much of the worldwide production is either sourced from or processed in China, and it can be difficult to secure supplies.

— In an EV, the rare earth elements are used in the motors and not the batteries. A permanent magnet motor uses magnets embedded in or attached to the surface of the motor’s rotor — these magnets are used to generate a constant motor flux, instead of requiring the stator field to generate one by linking to the rotor. The magnets used in these motors are made with REEs such as neodymium, terbium, and dysprosium.

— But rare earths are typically mined by digging vast open pits, which can contaminate the environment and disrupt ecosystems. When poorly regulated, mining can produce waste-water ponds filled with acids, heavy metals, and radioactive material that might seep into groundwater.

Point to ponder: 

4. MCQ:

Consider the following statements and answer the question below:

1. India currently imports all the lithium it needs.

2. In Electric Vehicles, the rare earth elements are used both in the motors and the batteries.

Which of the following statement/s is/are correct?

(a) Only 1

(b) Only 2

(c) Both 1 and 2

(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Periodic Labour Force Survey

WHY IN NEWS?

— The Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation released the results of the Periodic Labour Force Survey for the period July 2022 to June 2023. This is the sixth PLFS report and each tracks a 12 month period between July and June.

— The annual PLFS is conducted by the National Sample Survey Office in order to get an understanding about the state of employment in India.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Udit Mishra writes:

— The PLFS provides data on different metrics so that the policymakers can understand the proportion of people demanding work, the proportion of people among them who failed to get a job, the gender differences in employment as well as wages etc.

— The PLFS also tells the sectoral distribution of workers in the economy — what percentage is involved in agriculture, for instance. It also records the type of work people do — for instance, how many are engaged in casual labour, how many work for themselves, and how many have regular salaried jobs etc.

— PLFS collects data in two ways — Usual Status (US) and Current Weekly Status (CWS). Broadly speaking, within usual status, the survey respondent has to recall their employment details from the last one year while in the CWS, the respondent has to recall the details over the past one week.

—The estimate of the labour force in the usual status includes

1) the persons who either worked or were seeking/available for work for a relatively long part of the 365 days preceding the date of survey and also

2) those persons from among the remaining population who had worked at least for 30 days during the reference period of 365 days preceding the date of survey

— The estimate of the labour force according to the current weekly status approach is derived by considering those who worked for at least 1 hour or was seeking/ available for work for at least 1 hour on any day during the 7 days preceding the date of survey.

Most of the findings below are all based on CWS.

1) Unemployment Rate (UER)

— The UER is often the most talked about metric in popular discourse. Simply put, it refers to the proportion of people who demanded work over the past year and failed to get it.

— For the population above 15 years of age, the UER has fallen significantly — from 6.6% to 5.1% over the last year (that is, July to June cycle).

2) Labour Force Participation Rate (LFPR)

— The UER rate is calculated as a proportion of the population that is demanding work. But this population — which demands work — also goes up and down for a variety of reasons. The LFPR is a measure of the total population demanding work, and it is presented as a proportion of the total population that is above 15 years of age.

— India’s LFPR, which had been inching up, shot up significantly in the past year. As of 2022-23, 54.6% of all Indians above the age of 15 were looking for a job.

3) LFPR for women

— This metric looks at LFPR for among women to ascertain where the additional demand for jobs is coming from.

— The data shows that female LFPR has gone up over the years but there were two discrete step-ups — one in 2019-20 (when India’s GDP growth rate had slowed down to less than 4% and this was before the Covid pandemic hit) and second in 2022-23 when it rose to 31.6%.

4) Worker Population Rate

— The WPR is the percentage of persons employed among the persons in the population. Thus, instead of looking at how many demand a job and how many fail to get it, the WPR simply gives a measure of how many people have a job as a proportion of the total population.

— This metric too has been going up and especially noteworthy are the two discrete step-ups in 2019-20 and 2022-23.

5) WPR among women

— This metric throws light at the WPR for women to understand what’s leading to the spike in overall WPR.

— Again, the WPR for women has been going up but two main spikes have been in 2019-20 and 2022-23.

6) Monthly earnings

— The PLFS reports also provide a sense of how much do people earn in different types of jobs.

— While it is true that incomes have broadly gone up — after falling during Covid — the main takeaway from this data emerges when one compares how little have monthly incomes changed over the past 6 years, especially in the face of a sharp rise in inflation.

— To be sure, since late 2019, annual consumer inflation has always been above the RBI’s target of 4%.

7) Distribution of workers

— The details of the three main classifications: self-employment, casual labour (say a construction worker) and regular salaried job are worth looking at. Self-employed has two sub-categories: (i) own account worker and employer and (ii) unpaid helper in household enterprises.

— The data shows that self-employment has risen and jobs in the other two categories have fallen in proportion.

— It is also noteworthy that self-employment among women is the key driver for this overall trend.

JUST FYI : Expert’s take

Udit Misra writes:

— At first glance, PLFS 2022-23 throws up some positive trends: Unemployment rate continues to fall, LFPR and WPR see significant spikes. In particular, it is heartening to note that more and more women are joining the workforce. This would suggest that as the Indian economy recovers, more and more well-paying jobs are getting created.

— However, when one looks at what these new jobs are and how much they pay, the understanding changes.

— That’s because the only jobs that are getting created are of the “self-employment” type. When an economy grows, businesses employ people. When an economy struggles, people lose their regular jobs, and become “self-employed”.

— Similarly, the trend for women across all metrics suggests that weak household finances have pushed women, who were outside the workforce in the past, to join in, often as “unpaid helpers in household enterprises”.

— Similarly, sectorally, too, India seems to be moving backwards with the proportion of Indians employed in agriculture going up over the past year while those in manufacturing having fallen.

— Lastly, a booming economy sees monthly incomes improve. However, that is not the case in India.

Point to ponder: Labour force participation is up, unemployment is down. What about the quality of work?

5. MCQ:

With reference to Periodic Labour Force Survey (PLFS), which of the statements is incorrect?

(a) PLFS collects data in two ways — Usual Status (US) and Current Weekly Status (CWS).

(b) The PLFS data shows that self-employment has fallen.

(c) For the population above 15 years of age, the Unemployment rate has fallen significantly, according to PLFS.

(d) India’s Labor Force Participation Rate, which had been inching up, shot up significantly in the past year.

India’s AI programme

WHY IN NEWS?

— The government on Friday unveiled a report on the country’s artificial intelligence programme, which it believes will be a kinetic enabler for India to achieve the goal of USD 1 trillion digital economy by 2026.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

— Minister of Electronics and IT Rajeev Chandrasekhar said that the draft National Strategy on Robotics will be part of the multi-year India AI programme.

— He said that apart from supporting the startup ecosystem, India’s AI programme will focus on comprehensive skills in the country, building computer infrastructure etc.

— The report recommends creation of India data sets platform to be used by domestic startups and researchers, building GPU (graphical processing unit)-based computer infrastructure to provide resources for development of AI engines or models to indigenous firms.

— “India AI computer platform will be a PPP (public private partnership) project that will create substantial GPU capacity for our startups and researchers to train their models,” Chandrasekhar said.

— He said India data sets will be a collection of data and may be one of the largest collections of anonymised data sets, which will be used by Indian researchers and Indian startups to train their model.

— “Indian AI will also support development of AI chips in partnership with the Semicon India Program,” Chandrasekhar said.

JUST FYI: On SemiconIndia

— The recently concluded three-day conference, ‘SemiconIndia – 2023’, centered around ‘Catalysing India’s Semiconductor Ecosystem,’ aimed to further boost the sector and showcase the remarkable growth in India’s digital and electronic manufacturing industries.

— The significance of semiconductors cannot be overstated; they are the foundational elements of modern technology and play critical roles in emerging technologies such as artificial intelligence, internet of things applications, 5G communications, electric vehicles, and more.

— With the evolving global landscape in emerging technologies, the semiconductor industry is poised for substantial growth.

— The government’s vision to reduce import dependency, establish domestic manufacturing capabilities, and attract investments in this sector are timely and effective measures.

Point to ponder: India should play a role in shaping global AI regulatory order, while nurturing domestic ecosystem to build AI expertise. Discuss.

6. MCQ:

 SUPACE, an Artificial Intelligence (AI) portal, is related to:

(a) Urban development

(b) Agriculture

(c) Sports

(d) Judiciary

ANSWERS TO MCQs: 1 (c), 2 (c), 3 (b), 4 (a), 5 (b), 6 (d)

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