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02 May 2023 : The Indian Express

Editorial 1: The Hunger Paradox

Context:

  • Recent study published in the Lancet about the prevalence of ‘Zero-Food’ among infants and young children in India highlighted the issue of hunger and malnutrition among Indian children.


Basic Terminologies:

  • Zero Food phenomena: A child who had been without any food whatsoever in the last 24 hrs including mother’s milk, any food protein or any cereals.  
  • Malnutrition: It refers to deficiencies or excesses in nutrient intake, imbalance of essential nutrients or impaired nutrient utilization.
  • Wasting (low weight for height): It often indicates recent and severe weight loss, although it can also persist for a long time.
  • Stunting (low height for age): It is the result of chronic or recurrent undernutrition.
  • Underweight (low weight for age): A child who is underweight may be stunted, wasted or both. 
  • Micronutrient deficiencies: A lack of vitamins and minerals that are essential for body functions such as producing enzymes, hormones and other substances needed for growth and development. Iron deficiency leads to Anaemia.


Status of Hunger and Malnutrition in India:

  • India faces Triple Burden of Malnutrition – Undernutrition, Hidden Hunger (Micronutrient Deficiency) and Overweight – threatens the survival, growth and development of children and young people, as well as diet-related non-communicable diseases.


A National Sample Survey report indicated about 5% of the total population in India sleeps without two square meals a day. This section of the population could be called as "hungry”.

  • As per the recent report of NFHS-5 (2019-21), the nutrition indicators for children under 5 years in India have improved as compared with NFHS-4 (2015-16). Stunting has reduced from 38.4% to 35.5%, Wasting has reduced from 21.0% to 19.3% and Underweight prevalence has reduced from 35.8% to 32.1%. Overweight children have worsened from 2.1% to 3.4%.
  • Anaemia: The incidence of anaemia in under-5 children (from 58.6 to 67%), women (53.1 to 57%) and men (22.7 to 25%) has worsened in all States of India (20%-40% incidence is considered moderate). Barring Kerala (at 39.4%), all States are in the “severe” category(>40%).


At the international level, in 2022, India’s rank has worsened to 107 out of 121 countries, from 101 out of 116 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI).

  • Issues and challenges related to hunger in India:
  1. Vagueness of Data: The indicators like stunting, wasting etc. are mere proxies for general deficiency but do not provide specific nutrient information.
  2. Multifactorial nature: The issue of malnutrition is based on multiple factors crosscutting various ministries.
  3. Intergenerational challenge : The mother child combine at the nutrition and genetics levels have to be taken care of to fight the menace.
  4. Paradox of Food Security: High Milk, protein and cereal production may not ensure nutritional security for the mother child combine as seen in the Zero Food phenomena found among 60 lakh children in a survey.
  5. Rising Burden of Noncommunicable Diseases: Cardiovascular Diseases like heart disease, blood pressure, diabetes, etc especially among the middle class at all ages is a growing challenge.


Way Forward:  

  1. Clarity on data: Adoption of 24-hour recall strategy in NFHS surveys for collection of data on the consumption pattern of the mother child combine.
  2. Cooperation: Multi ministerial coordination and implementation strategies must be devised through integrated approach towards schemes like Poshan 3.0, Swach Bharat Mission, PM Garib Kalyan Anna Yojana etc.
  3. Food Diversification: Inclusion of micronutrients and protein supplements through Public Distribution System (PDS) like milk, pulses, eggs etc.
  4. Use of Technology: Food fortification and use of various techniques to make the food tasty  and healthy for children via Mid Day Meal will enhance nutrition status of children.
  5. Holistic approach:  As Dr Amartya Sen said, the real reason of hunger is the inability to buy food. The issue of accessibility and affordability with food and nutritional security must be handled holistically.  


Conclusion:

  • The menace of hunger is a multiheaded hydra and needs to be tackled in a multidimensional manner. Steps like Eat Right Movement, compulsory breastfeeding for 6 months etc are good efforts. Need is to ensure evidence based policy making, cooperative federalism and strong political will is utilized to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 2 of Zero Hunger.


About Global Hunger Index:

The Global Hunger Index (GHI) is a tool for comprehensively measuring and tracking hunger at global, regional, and national levels. GHI scores are based on the values of four component indicators:

  • Undernourishment
  • Child stunting
  • Child wasting
  • Child mortality

The GHI score is calculated on a 100-point scale reflecting the severity of hunger - zero is the best score (implies no hunger) and 100 is the worst.

The GHI is prepared by European NGOs of Concern Worldwide and Welthungerhilfe.

The GHI is an annual report and each set of GHI scores uses data from a 5-year period. The 2022 GHI scores are calculated using data from 2017 through 2021.

Editorial 2: Grappling with AI

Context:

  • Group of Seven (G7) developed nations met in Japan and released a joint statement that regulation of Artificial Intelligence (AI) must preserve an open and enabling environment for the development of AI while being based on democratic values.


Basic Terminologies:

  • Artificial Intelligence (AI): The term ‘Artificial Intelligence’ was coined by John McCarthy in 1956 at the Dartmouth conference, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), USA. It is the simulation of human intelligence processes by machines; especially computer systems. It is a branch of computer science concerned with building machines capable of performing tasks that typically require human intelligence. Examples include voice assistants like Siri and Alexa.
  • Machine Learning (ML): It is a constituent process of artificial intelligence which gives computers the ability to learn without being explicitly programmed. It creates algorithms that can learn from data and make decisions based on patterns observed. It requires human intervention when decision is incorrect.
  • Deep Learning (DL): It is the advanced process of artificial intelligence where machine learning algorithms with brain-like logical structure of algorithms called artificial neural networks. It uses these networks to reach the correct conclusions without human interventions.
  • Generative AI: It is a type of artificial intelligence system capable of generating text, images or other media in response to prompts. It is a set of algorithms of generating seemingly new , realistic content from the training data.  Examples include ChatGPT, Dall-E(a tool for AI generated Art), Bard etc.


Status of AI:

  • A 2022 McKinsey survey shows that global AI adoption has more than doubled over the past five years and investment has risen faster.
  • It is estimated that AI will add $957 billion to India’s GDP by 2035 boosting annual growth by 1.3%.
  • A study published in Nature found that AI may enable almost 80% of all Sustainable Development Goal targets.
  • A study by Nasscom in 2022 found that about 46% of the workforce will be engaged in entirely new jobs.


Concerns associated with AI:

  1. Energy Intensive: According to studies, around 40% of the total energy that data centers consume goes in cooling the IT equipments.
  2. Job losses: Threat of high unemployment looms large if AI is used uncritically.
  3. Moral dilemma: Robots may be managing and ruling humans in the times to come. May even replace humans.
  4. Bias and Prejudice: The AI may have human biases as happened in case of Tay Tweets chatbot made by Microsoft.
  5. Expensive: High cost of repair, maintenance, upgradation and recovery when the software or hardware breaksdown.
  6. Issue of privacy and security: Access to vast amounts of data and facial recognition may threaten civil liberties.


Steps Taken include:

  1. National Strategy on AI by NITI Aayog has been unveiled for faster adoption of AI.
  2. National Mission on Interdisciplinary Cyber Physical Systems aims at establishing Technology innovation Hubs(TIH) to build capacity and training for developing new age scientists in the field.
  3. Global Partnership on Artificial Intelligence (GPAI): India has joined this multistakeholder initiative for responsible development of AI.
  4. AI Research, Analytics and Knowledge Assimilation Platform: It is a cloud computing platform for collaboration in the field of research in AI. 
  5. India developed GI Cloud(Meghraj), National AI portal of India, etc into various applications.


Conclusion

  • AI is just a tool for human development and must be an enabler for enhancement of standard of living for the common masses. It must be directed towards achieving Sustainable Development Goals and bring about a qualitative change in the Ease Of Living.