Prelims-Pinpointer-for-21-oct-2025

Prelims

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index (MPI) 2025

Key Highlights

• Global Headcount
  • Of 6.3 billion people across 109 countries, 1.1 billion (18.3%) live in acute multidimensional poverty.
  • 43.6% face severe poverty (deprived in half or more MPI indicators).
  • 83.2% live in sub-Saharan Africa (565 million) and South Asia (390 million).
• India
  • Multidimensional poverty fell to 16.4% (2019-21) from 55.1% (2005-06).
  • ~414 million people lifted out of poverty.

• Common Deprivations
  • Lack of clean cooking fuel, inadequate housing, poor sanitation.
• Climate Hazards
  • Over 80% of poor live in climate hazard-prone regions.
  • South Asia has highest number of poor in climate hazard areas.
• Small Island Developing States (SIDS)
  • 22 SIDS have collective poverty rate of 23.5% (higher than developing world average: 18.3%).
  • Sea-level rise by up to 70 cm by 2080-99 poses critical threat (Belize, Comoros, Samoa).

Global Multidimensional Poverty Index

• Released by: UNDP and Oxford Poverty & Human Development Initiative (OPHI) annually since 2010.
• Methodology: Based on 3 dimensions with 10 indicators:
• Health
  • Nutrition: Any person under 70 is undernourished.
  • Child Mortality: Child under 18 died in household in last 5 years.
• Education
  • Years of Schooling: No member completed 6 years of schooling.
  • School Attendance: School-aged child not attending school up to class 8 completion age.
• Living Standards
  • Access to clean energy, sanitation, drinking water, etc.

Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH)

Codex Committee on Spices and Culinary Herbs (CCSCH)

• Established 2013 at India’s behest under Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC).
• Secretariat: India’s Spice Board (Ministry of Commerce and Industry), Kochi.

Codex Standards

• Definition
  • International food texts (standards, hygiene codes, guidelines) to protect consumer health and ensure fair food trade practices.
  • Collection adopted by CAC known as Codex Alimentarius (CA).
• Nature
  • Not binding on national food legislation; adopted by consensus among members.
  • WTO’s SPS Agreement identifies Codex standards as international benchmark for food safety.

• Codex Alimentarius Commission (CAC)
  • HQ: Rome.
  • Established jointly by FAO and WHO in 1963.
• Objective
  • Protecting consumer health, ensuring fair food trade practices.
• Membership
  • 189 members: 188 countries (including India) + 1 organization (EU).
• Meetings
  • Meets annually, alternating between Geneva and Rome.

India’s Gold Reserves

Context: India’s gold reserves reached $102.3 billion (RBI data), raising gold’s share in foreign reserves to ~15% from ~7% a decade ago.

Why RBI Increasing Gold Reserves?

• Diversification: Diversify foreign currency assets base; reduce US dollar dependency (de-dollarization).
• Risk Mitigation: Protect against currency volatility and revaluation risks to forex stockpile.
• Hedge Against Inflation: Protects purchasing power of foreign reserves.
• Safe Haven Asset: Provides buffer during economic/geopolitical turmoil and financial crises.

Risks of Increasing Gold in Reserves

• Reduced Liquidity: Gold to cash conversion is slower and costlier.
• Zero Yield: Gold yields no interest (unlike currency deposits).
• Storage and Security Costs: Physical gold requires secure storage, increasing costs.

Components of Foreign Exchange Reserves

• Foreign Currency Assets (FCA) maintained in
  • US dollar, euro, pound sterling, Australian dollar, Japanese yen. 
  • Gold Reserves: Held with RBI. 
  • Holdings with IMF
  • Special Drawing Rights (SDR): Interest-bearing reserve asset created by IMF to supplement members’ reserve assets.
  • Reserve Tranche Position (RTP): Difference between member’s quota and IMF’s holdings of member’s currency; readily available for withdrawal without strict conditions.

Zombie Deer Disease 

About

• Progressive, fatal neurological disease affecting deer, elk, moose, reindeer.
• Affects central nervous system (brain, spinal cord).

Cause

• Caused by infectious proteins called prions.
• Prions are misfolded proteins (no DNA/RNA, unlike bacteria/viruses).
• Cause other brain proteins to misfold, leading to brain damage.
• Protein accumulation creates spongy holes in brain tissue, causing severe neurological dysfunction.

Transmission

• Highly contagious; spread via body fluids (saliva, feces, blood, urine) through direct contact or environmental contamination.
• Prions remain infectious in soil, water, plants for years, posing long-term risk.

Symptoms

• Incubation period: 18-24 months (animals appear normal during this time).
• Progressive weight loss (most obvious sign).
• Behavioral changes: Decreased social interaction, loss of awareness, loss of fear of humans.
• Increased drinking, urination, excessive salivation.
• Final stage: Animals become debilitated, ultimately die.
• Progression speed depends on species and genetics.

Treatment

• Always fatal; no vaccine or treatment.

Human Risk

• No confirmed human transmission so far; experts remain cautious.

Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)

Context: India and FAO celebrated 80 years of partnership on World Food Day 2025.

About FAO

• UN specialized agency leading international efforts to defeat hunger.
• Oldest permanent UN specialized agency; established October 1945.
• HQ: Rome, Italy.
• Mandate
  • Improve nutrition, increase agricultural productivity, raise rural living standards, contribute to global economic growth.
• Functions
  • Coordinates government and technical agency efforts in agriculture, forestry, fisheries, land/water resources development.
  • Leads international efforts to fight hunger.
  • Forum for negotiating agreements between developing and developed countries.
  • Source of technical knowledge and information for development.
• Membership
  • 195 members: 194 countries + European Union.
  • India is founding member.
• Key Reports
  • SOFO (State of World’s Forests).
  • SOFIA (State of World Fisheries and Aquaculture).
  • SOCO (State of Agricultural Commodity Markets).
  • SOFI (State of Food Security and Nutrition in the World).

Rakchham Chitkul Wildlife Sanctuary

Context: International bird-watching programme organized at Rakchham area of Rakchham-Chitkul Wildlife Sanctuary, Himachal Pradesh.

Location and Geography

• Kinnaur district, Himachal Pradesh; part of Western Himalayan range.
• Area: 30.98 sq. km.
• Elevation: 3,200 to 5,486 meters above sea level.
• Surrounded by snow-capped mountains, lush green valleys, gushing rivers.

Features

• Lamkhanga Pass (perilous trekking route) passes through sanctuary; connects Kinnaur (HP) to Gangotri (Uttarakhand).
• Located in dry zone; does not experience monsoons (unlike other HP sanctuaries).

Flora

• Rhododendrons, oak, pine trees, medicinal herbs.

Fauna

• Snow leopards, Himalayan black bears, musk deer, numerous bird species.

Tuvalu Island

Context: Tuvalu became 90th State Member of International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN).

About Tuvalu

Location and Geography

• Island country in west-central Pacific Ocean; formerly Ellice Islands.
• 4th smallest country (26 sq. km land area).
• Located halfway between Australia and Hawaii.
• Neighbors: Kiribati (north), Fiji (south).
• Collection of small islands and atolls (coral reefs, volcanic rock).
• All islands low-lying; no point above 4.5m sea level — threatened by sea level rise.
• No rivers; hot and rainy climate.

Demographics

• Fewest inhabitants of any independent nation (except Vatican City).

Administrative

• Capital: Funafuti.
• Languages: Tuvaluan (most spoken), English widely used.
• Currency: Tuvalu dollar (equivalent to Australian dollar).

Nauru

Context: Australia defended A$2.5 billion, 30-year agreement with Nauru to resettle deported non-citizens, criticized by human rights groups for shifting refugee responsibility to aid-dependent Pacific nations.

Nauru

• Micronation in southwestern Pacific Ocean
• World’s third-smallest country by land area and population.
• Unitary parliamentary republic with 19-member legislature.

Geographic Location

• Located 25 miles south of Equator in southeastern Micronesia.
• About 800 km northeast of Solomon Islands, 300 km west of Kiribati’s Banaba Island.
• Land area: Only 21 sq. km (most compact sovereign states).

Administrative Centre

• No official capital
• Yaren district hosts Parliament, Presidential offices, administrative institutions (de facto capital).

Geological and Environmental Features

• Raised coral atoll with fertile coastal land encircling Buada Lagoon (only inland water body).
• Interior plateau (~100 feet above sea level) rich in phosphate rock (from ancient bird guano deposits).
• Phosphate mining degraded 80%+ of land, creating limestone pinnacles, limiting agriculture.
• Severe freshwater scarcity; relies on rainfall-dependent reservoirs, imported water.

Significance

• Economy relies on phosphate exports, Australian aid, offshore asylum processing revenues.
• Key geopolitical partner for Australia, hosting detention and resettlement facility under migration and defence cooperation framework.