- India tops world hunger list with 194 million people
- India is home to 194.6 million undernourished people, the highest in the world, according to the annual report by the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations released on Thursday.
- This translates into over 15 per cent of India’s population.
- There has however been a significant reduction in the proportion of undernourished people in India — by 36 per cent — from 1990-92.
- Around the world, 795 million people — or around one in nine — are undernourished. Asia and the Pacific account for almost 62 per cent of this section.
- According to the statistics, the prevalence of underweight children declined from 49.2 per cent in 1990 to 30 per cent in 2013.
- 90 Percent Of Global Chemical Weapons Stockpile ‘Destroyed’
- The Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) says 90 percent of the world’s chemical armaments stockpile has been destroyed.
- The Hague-based organization says some 63,000 tons of declared chemical weapons, mostly from U.S. and Russian arsenals, have been destroyed “in a safe manner” since a global ban on producing and storing chemical weapons came into force in 1997.
- This includes 1,300 tons of chemical weapons removed from Syria.
- 23-year-old US-educated Yaduveer crowned ‘Maharaja of Mysuru’
- In a traditional ceremony, US-educated Yaduveer Krishnadatta Chamaraja Wodeyar, the adopted son of Pramoda Devi Wodeyar, has been crowned as the titular head of the erstwhile Mysuru royal family.
- The coronation took place at Kalyana Mantap in Amba Vilas Palace in Mysuru at an auspicious hour this morning amid Vedic chants and slogans hailing the Mysuru royalty and the 23-year-old “King” as he ascended the silver throne ‘Bhadrasana’.
- Yaduveer, the 27th King of Wodeyar dynasty, will have to wait until Dasara to ascend the golden throne, when he will preside over the ‘khasa (private) durbar’, which is reminiscent of the bygone era.
- Yaduveer has completed his BA in Economics and English at Boston University in the US.
- Abhinav Bindra becomes fourth Indian shooter to qualify for 2016 Rio Olympics
- India’s only individual Olympic gold medallist Abhinav Bindra has won his country its fourth Rio Olympics quota slot, with a sixth place finish in the final of the 10m Air Rifle event at the International Shooting Sport Federation (ISSF) World Cup (Rifle/Pistol).
- This is India’s fourth quota place in shooting in the run up to the Rio 2016 summer Olympic Games, after Jitu Rai, Gagan Narang and Apurvi Chandela had accomplished the feat in earlier World Cups.
- Singapore appoints Indian-origin diplomat S Chandra Das as envoy to Sri Lanka
- Singapore has appointed an Indian- origin businessman as its non-Resident High Commissioner to Sri Lanka.
- S Chandra Das served as Singapore’s Ambassador to the Republic of Turkey, resident in Singapore, from 2006 to 2015.
- He had also previously served as Singapore’s Trade Representative from 1970 to 1972 in the USSR, the former Soviet Union.
- AFSPA removed in Tripura after 18 years
- A bit over 18 years after the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) was enforced in Tripura, the state government on Wednesday decided to withdraw the Act.
- AFSPA provides unlimited powers to security forces to shoot at sight, arrest anybody without a warrant, and carry out searches without consent . All this knowing that they wouldn’t face any legal action for any action undertaken under the act.
- The central act was first enforced in Tripura on 16 February, 1997 when terrorism was at its peak in the state, which shares an 856-km border with Bangladesh.
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