Current Affairs January – 2020
India
General Bipin Rawat takes charge as India’s first CDS
General Bipin Rawat took charge as India’s first Chief of Defence Staff (CDS) on 1 January 2020 and will now serve as the principal military advisor to the Union Defence Minister Rajnath Singh.
After receiving the Guard of Honour by the Indian Armed Forces at the South Block in New Delhi, Rawat said, ‘I want to assure you that the army, the navy and the air force will work as a team. The CDS will keep control over them, but action will be taken through teamwork.’
Prime Minister Narendra Modi had announced the creation of the post of CDS during his Independence Day speech in 2019. The Union Cabinet had later approved the proposal for the creation of a new Department of Military Affairs (DMA) under the Union Defence Ministry, with the CDS being its head. This department has authority over the three military services, the headquarters of Integrated Defence Staff (IDS), territorial army and all work related to the three services and their procurements, except capital acquisitions.
For more details, visit http://ddnews.gov.in
Market report on E-commerce in India released
A recent report titled ‘Market Study on E-commerce in India: Key Findings and Observations’ released by Competition Commission of India (CCI) found that e-commerce has become vital for different sectors in India.
The findings show that e-commerce has increased price transparency (a situation where both the seller and buyer know the price of a product and no intermediary is involved) and price competition (a situation in which companies try to sell their products or services at prices lower than that of similar products or services) in the country. The report further highlights that the payment system providers facilitating a smooth digital transaction experience has contributed significantly to the success of the e-commerce platform.
The study provides insights into the key features of e-commerce in India, the different business models of e-commerce, and the various aspects of agreements between participants involved in e-commerce.
The main objective behind initiating the report was to understand the functioning of e-commerce in India and its effect on markets and competition. In addition, the report also intends to identify the barriers to competition emerging from e-commerce.
For more details, visit https://government.economictimes
Supreme Court allows introduction of African cheetah to India
The Supreme Court of India gave the nod to the Centre on 28 January 2020 to introduce the African cheetah to a suitable habitat in India.
The National Tiger Conservation Authority (NTCA) had filed an application seeking permission for the introduction of African cheetahs from Namibia to India stating that Indian cheetahs are almost extinct. However, the application had been rejected previously by the apex court, who then called it a ‘foreign species’. But the bench comprising Chief Justice S A Bobde, Justices B R Gavai and Surya Kant modified its previous order and said that the African cheetah can be introduced only after conducting a detailed survey and analysing whether it can adapt to Indian conditions.
The apex court’s order also stated that an expert panel, comprising wildlife experts M K Ranjitsinh, Dhananjai Mohan and the DIG of the Ministry of Environment and Forests will be guiding the NTCA on the same. The court will monitor the project and the panel is required to submit a report every four months.
For more details, visit https://www.hindustantimes.com
Indian Navy launches Operation Vanilla to provide disaster relief to Madagascar
The Indian Navy launched Operation Vanilla on 28 January 2020 to extend assistance and support to flood-hit Madagascar after the president of the country took to Twitter to seek international assistance to deal with the devastation caused by Cyclone Diane.
The Indian Navy diverted its ship INS Airavat, which was enroute to Seychelles, to Antsiranana , located in the North of Madagascar, based on the request. The Navy deployed the ship to set up a medical camp and provide food, water, medicines and other relief materials to the local population.
INS Airavat is an amphibious assault ship (type of warship, intended to provide support to ground forces on enemy territory by an amphibious assault) and hence, it has humanitarian aid and disaster relief (HADR) as part of its mission. Such ships always carry relief material in order to respond quickly to any emergency situation.
For more details, visit http://www.newsonair.com
Government signs Bru-Reang refugee agreement
A historic pact was signed with the Centre, the state governments of Tripura and Mizoram and Bru-Reang representatives on 16 January 2019 to provide permanent settlements to Bru-Reang refugees in Tripura.
About 30,000 Bru-Reang tribals fled Mizoram in 1997 due to ethnic tension and took shelter in refugee camps in Tripura. These refugees have been living in temporary shelters at Kanchanpur in North Tripura ever since.
According to the quadripartite agreement, each of the displaced families will be given 40×30 sq ft residential plots in Tripura and an aid of ₹1,50,000 to build the house. Besides, each family would be given a sum of ₹4,00,000, which they will be able to withdraw after two years. In addition, each family will be given ₹5,000 and free ration every month for two years.
A total of ₹600 crore has been allotted to provide aid to the displaced families.
For more details, visit http://www.newsonair.com
Sports
Irfan Pathan retires from all forms of cricket
Indian all-rounder Irfan Pathan announced his retirement from all forms of cricket on 4 January 2020. Irfan made his international debut in 2003 at the age of 19 against Australia in Adelaide. He last played a competitive game for Jammu and Kashmir in the Syed Mushtaq Ali Trophy T20 tournament against Kerala on 27 February 2019.
Listed below are a few remarkable achievements of Irfan Pathan.
a. He is the only player with a 9-wicket haul in a youth ODI till date.
b. He is the only player to have taken a hat-trick in the first over of a test match.
c. He is the first Indian to take four wickets in the history of twenty-20.
d. He was the first recipient of the ICC Emerging Player of the Year award.
e. The 35-year-old has represented India in 120 ODIs, 29 tests and 24 T20Is in his career spanning over 15 years.
For more details, visit https://www.hindustantimes.com
Indian weightlifter Sarbjeet Kaur banned for four years for doping
The National Anti-Doping Agency banned Indian weightlifter Sarbjeet Kaur for four years on finding her guilty of anti-doping rule violation.
Sarbjeet’s dope test sample was collected during the 34th Women Senior National Weightlifting Championship held at Visakhapatnam. The reports revealed the presence of prohibited substances such as Di-hydroxy-LGD-4033 (LGD 4033 metabolite), Selective Androgen Receptor Modulations (SARM), and Ostarine (Enobosarm) in her sample.
Sarbjeet had won the 71kg event at the women’s national weightlifting championships in February 2019.
Previously, in December 2017, Commonwealth Championship silver medalist Seema was also handed a four-year ban for doping. Arjuna Award winner and Olympian Satheesha Rai also tested positive for a banned substance in 2002. As a consequence, he was stripped of his 2002 CWG gold medal.
For more details, visit https://www.business-standard.com
Arjun Munda elected President of Archery Association of India
Minister of Tribal Affairs Arjun Munda was elected president of the suspended Archery Association of India at Jawahar Lal Nehru (JLN) Stadium on 18 January 2020. Munda won a clear majority over B V P Rao with 34-18 votes. A total of 26 out of 31 state associations participated in the elections with each state having two votes. Munda will now serve the association for a period of four years.
The other members who were elected to the different posts in the Association are Pramod Chandurkar as Secretary General; Capt. Abhimanyu Sindhu as Senior Vice President; Kailash Murarka, D K Vidyarthi, Amarinder Singh, K K Jadam, Chetan Kavleka, Rupak Debroy, Paia Banylla War Nongbri and Rupesh Kar as Vice Presidents; Ram Niwas Hooda, Sumanta Mohanty, Dinesh Bhil, K B Gurung, Shihan Hussaini, Joris Paulose Ummacheril and Komjum Ribba as Joint Secretaries; and Rajendar Singh Tomar as the Treasurer.
Arjun Munda is a three-time Chief Minister of Jharkhand. He also runs an archery academy which played an instrumental role in the rise of top Indian archer, Deepika Kumari.
For more details, visit https://www.newindianexpress.com
World Archery lifts suspension on India
The World Archery conditionally lifted the suspension placed on the Archery Association of India (AAI) on 23 January 2020 less than a week after the federation held its elections.
The suspension was placed on the AAI on 5 August after it defied the guidelines by electing two parallel bodies and two different presidents –Arjun Munda and BVP Rao. Thereafter, the athletes were allowed to compete only under a neutral flag at events and this directly affected their chances of qualification in the Olympics.
With the lifting of the ban, the Indian athletes can now compete under the Indian flag. However, the AAI has been instructed to update its Constitution to clarify athlete membership, develop a strategic plan, resolve governance issues and submit a progress report every three months.
The next international archery tournament, Indoor World Series, is scheduled to be held in Las Vegas in February 2020.
For more details, visit https://www.newindianexpress.com
Rani Rampal becomes first field hockey player to win ‘The World Games Athlete of the Year’ award
Indian women’s team captain Rani Rampal became the first-ever hockey player to win the ‘The World Games Athlete of the Year’ award on 31 January 2020. A total of 25 players from different sports were nominated for this award by their international federations and the winner was decided by an online voting process. Out of a total of 7,05,610 votes cast by sports fans, Rani received 1,99,477 votes in her favour during the polling period of 20 days.
Ukrainian karate player Stanislav Horuna and Canadian powerlifting champion Rhaea Stinn secured the second and third positions, respectively.
Rani has been a member of the national team since the age of 15 and has won several accolades. She is a recipient of the Arjuna Award in 2016 and was also named a Padma Shri awardee recently. Besides, she played an important role in Asia Cup 2009 to win a silver medal. She was also a part of the Indian team for the Commonwealth Games 2010 and the Asian Games 2010. In addition, she is the only Indian to be nominated for the FIH Women’s Young Player of the Year Award 2010.
In honour of her achievement, the Sports Authority of India (SAI) gave her an out-of-turn promotion, making her a coach (Level-10) in the association. Rani had joined the SAI as an assistant coach in 2015.
For more details, visit https://timesofindia
Literature
‘They’ chosen as the word of the decade by American linguists
The American dialect society named the singular pronoun ‘they’ as the word of the decade owing to the growing use of third-person plural pronouns as a singular form to refer to people who identify their gender as neither entirely male nor entirely female.
The word was chosen by a consortium of 350 linguists, etymologists, historians, writers and students in New Orleans on 3 January 2020. A few other words included in the nomination list are ‘meme’, ‘climate’, ‘#BlackLivesMatter’, ‘woke’ and ‘#MeToo’.
‘They’ was also crowned the word of the year by US dictionary Merriam-Webster in 2019.
The other words of the decade chosen by the society since its inception in 1889 are ‘web’ (1990s) and ‘Google’ (2000s).
The American Dialect Society, founded in 1889, is dedicated to the study of English in North America.
For more details, visit https://www.theguardian.com
Environment
Delhi air pollution is majorly caused by local pollutants says study
A recent study conducted by the Global Centre for Clean Air Research (GCARE), University of Surrey, UK, has revealed that activities such as construction and vehicular traffic are the major sources of the harmful air pollutants and gases in Delhi.
The study which was published in the journal Sustainable Cities and Societies in January, took into consideration the pollution data of 2014–2017 from 12 sites across Delhi, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh. The main objective of the study was to analyse how particulate matter and gases (oxides of nitrogen, sulphur dioxide, carbon monoxide, and ozone) impact this area.
The GCARE study also highlighted that the levels of air pollutants in winter months were significantly higher than the summer and monsoon months, with the exception of ozone levels. The annual variation of ozone was opposite to other pollutants with the highest in the summer and the lowest in winter.
Professor Prashant Kumar, Founding Director of GCARE at the University of Surrey, said, ‘The currently configured network of air pollution monitors does not permit the evaluation of long-range transport between Delhi and the NCR (and vice versa), highlighting need for well-thought-out planning to expand the current network in the future. ’
For more details, visit https://www.surrey.ac.uk
Palau becomes the first country to ban sunscreen to protect coral reefs
Palau has become the first country to ban the sale and use of various types of toxic sunscreen and other skincare products in a bid to save the environment. Researchers believe that the different types of chemicals found in sunscreen products are highly toxic to juvenile stages of many wildlife species, including corals, fish, macroalgae, and can make corals more susceptible to bleaching.
Palau, located in the western part of the Pacific ocean, is made up of a large volcanic island and multiple smaller coral reef associated islands. Thus, in order to fight the threat posed to reefs, Palau has taken the strict environmental measure to ban ten chemicals, namely oxybenzone (benzophenone-3), ethyl paraben, octinoxate (octyl methoxycinnamate), butyl paraben, octocrylene, 4-methyl-benzylidene camphor, benzyl paraben, triclosan, methyl paraben and phenoxyethanol, which are found in different types of sunscreen and other skin products.
Palau President Tommy Remengesau has imposed a fine of $1,000 (£760) on retailers who violate the law. The President said, ‘When science tells us that a practice is damaging to coral reefs, to fish populations or to the ocean itself, our people take note and our visitors do too.’
For more details, visit https://www.dw.com
WEF launches initiative to grow one trillion trees by 2030
The World Economic Forum recently launched the ‘One Trillion Trees Initiative’ in Davos, Switzerland to grow, restore and conserve one trillion trees across the world by 2030.
The main purpose of this initiative is to fight climate change by locking up carbon dioxide in the world’s forests, grasslands and wetlands. The process of locking up carbon will help to reduce about one-third of the emissions by 2030 to meet the Paris Climate Agreement targets.
The Paris Climate Agreement is an agreement within the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC), dealing with greenhouse-gas-emissions mitigation, adaptation to climate change, and climate finance.
The initiative also intends to mobilise funds and political support by bringing governments, non-governmental organisations, businesses and individuals together in the effort to bring about mass-scale nature restoration.
For more details, visit https://www.weforum.org
Australia wildfires cause massive destruction
Australia has been witnessing the worst-ever wildfires for the past few months. Millions of birds and animals have perished in the fires and 7.3 million hectares of land has been burned so far. The fires have destroyed thousands of homes across the country.
Koalas are the worst affected animals as Australian wildfires destroyed almost 80 percent of their habitat. The Australian government declared a state of emergency in several affected areas, especially South Australia, Queensland and Victoria.
A forest fire, also known as a wildfire, is massive in nature and difficult to control. There are several regions in the world such as South America, Amazon forests, South Africa, Australia, and Canadian forests, where wildfires break out very often.
Experts believe climate change to be the cause of natural disasters, like fires and droughts. For the past few years, weather conditions have been growing more extreme and the fires have been starting earlier and spreading with greater intensity.
For more details, visit https://www.vox.com
Science & Technology
ISRO launches GSAT-30
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) successfully launched the communication satellite GSAT-30 from the spaceport in French Guiana at 2:35 am IST on 17 January 2020.
The satellite has a lift-off mass (mass of the satellite at the time of launch including fuels and oxidisers) of 3357 kg and a mission life of over 15 years. It will replace INSAT-4A in orbit, which was launched on 22 December 2005. It is intended to provide continuity to operational services on some of the in-orbit satellites.
On the launch of the satellite, Dr K Sivan, the chairman of ISRO informed that GSAT-30 has a unique configuration. It is capable of providing flexible frequency segments and coverage.
GSAT-30 is intended to provide DTH television services, connectivity to VSATs for ATMs, stock exchanges, television uplinking and teleport services, digital satellite news gathering (DSNG) and e-governance applications. Besides, the satellite is capable of providing bulk data transfer for a host of emerging telecommunication applications.
The satellite is expected to provide communication services to the Indian mainland and islands through Ku-band and wide coverage to Gulf countries, a large number of Asian countries and Australia through C-band. Ku-band and C-band are satellite communication bands with different transmission frequencies. While the frequency of Ku-band varies between 12 and 18 GHz, the frequency of C-band ranges between 4 and 8 GHz.
For more details, visit https://www.isro.gov.in
India successfully test-fires nuclear-capable K-4 ballistic missile
India successfully test-fired the nuclear-capable K-4 submarine-launched ballistic missile off the coast of Visakhapatnam on 24 January 2020. The missile, developed by the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO), was launched for the second time in a span of five days.
The missile’s K-4’s circular error of probability, i.e. the radius of the missile’s point of impact, was around 40 metres. This makes it ideal to strike targets from stand-off ranges.
This underwater missile is developed for integration with India’s Arihant class nuclear submarines. This means that the missile will reportedly give India the capability to launch nuclear weapons submerged in Indian waters. This three-metre-tall missile has a strike range of 3,500 km and is capable of carrying a nuclear warhead of over one tonne.
For more details, visit https://www.indiatoday.in
World
Lahore High Court annuls Pervez Musharraf’s death penalty
The Lahore High Court annulled the decision of the special tribunal regarding Pervez Musharraf’s death penalty and declared it ‘unconstitutional’ on 13 January 2020. This means that the special court’s death verdict to hang Musharraf will not be implemented and it will be heard all over again, if it is pursued.
Musharraf is currently on a self-imposed exile in Dubai and expressed his happiness after hearing the judgement of the top court through an audio statement. He said, ‘I cannot comment on it but the decision is really good, I am very happy that the judgement is as per the law and Constitution.’
A high treason case was filed by the Pakistan Muslim League-N government headed by former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in 2013. After almost six years, a three-member special bench comprising Peshawar High Court Chief Justice Waqar Ahmad Seth and Justices Nazar Akbar and Shahid Karim awarded death penalty to the former Pakistani Army Chief on 17 December 2019.
For more details, visit https://www.bbc.com
Haitham Bin Tariq Al becomes the new Sultan of Oman
A day after the death of long-time ruler Qaboos bin Said Al Said, his cousin Haitham bin Tariq al-Saeed was sworn in as the Sultan of Oman on 11 January 2020.
Qaboos was the eighth Sultan of the House of Al Said and had ruled Oman since 1970. He was the Arab world’s longest-serving ruler and passed away at the age of 79 years following a prolonged illness. The late Sultan had chosen Haitham Bin Tareq Al Saeed as his successor as he had no children.
Sultan Haitham Bin Tariq completed his graduation from the Oxford University in Foreign Service Programme. He started his political career in 1986 when he became the Undersecretary for Political Affairs in the Foreign Affairs Ministry. Later, in 1994, he became the Secretary-General of the Ministry till 2000. He became the Minister of National Heritage and Culture in 2002 and was also appointed the chairman of Oman’s development committee in 2013.
For more details, visit https://www.bbc.com
Russian Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev resigns
The Prime Minister of Russia, Dmitry Medvedev resigned from his post after President Vladimir Putin announced the proposed constitutional amendments. Medvedev is now serving as the Deputy Chairman of the Security Council of Russia.
Russia’s political elites believe that Putin’s amendments indicate that he was trying to carve out a new governing position for himself after the end of his term in 2024. He is the longest serving Russian leader since Joseph Stalin.
According to state news agencies, Putin proposed Mikhail Mishustin to become the next prime minister. Mushtin began his career in 1998 in the tax service department and was later named the deputy tax minister. He also served as the head of UFG, the Russian investment company in 2008. Later, in 2010, he was named the head of Russia’s tax service. The 53-year-old is a member of the board of Russia’s Ice Hockey Federation as well.
For more details, visit https://www.usatoday.com
Katerina Sakellaropoulou elected first female President of Greece
The Hellenic Parliament elected Katerina Sakellaropoulou as the first woman President of Greece on 22 January 2020. In the final result declared by the Parliament Chief Costas Tassoulas, Sakellaropoulou received 261 out of the total 294 MPs votes. She was backed by both the main opposition leftist and socialist parties.
The 63-year-old has served as the head of Greece’s top administrative court, the Council of State. She will succeed Prokopis Pavlopoulos when she takes the oath of office on 13 March.
Sakellaropoulou was nominated for the post by Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis, who was earlier criticised for not appointing a woman in his cabinet.
For more details, visit https://www.theguardian.com
WHO declares Coronavirus a global health emergency
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the novel coronavirus (nCoV) a global health emergency on 30 January 2020 as the outbreak continues to spread outside China.
Coronaviruses (CoV) are a large family of viruses that cause illnesses ranging from the common cold to more severe diseases, such as Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) and Severe Acute Respiratory Syndrome (SARS-CoV) and novel coronavirus (nCov). Coronaviruses are zoonotic in nature, i.e. they can be transmitted between animals and people.
The Ministry of Health of the People’s Republic of China reported 7,711 confirmed and 12,167 suspected cases throughout the country; of which 1,370 are severe cases. 170 people have died and 124 people recovered and were discharged from hospitals. As far as other countries are concerned, the WHO Secretariat informed that as of January 2020, there are 83 cases in 18 countries. Of these, only seven had no history of travelling to China.
Previously, the WHO had declared five global public health emergencies: swine flu (2009), polio (2014), Zika (2016), Ebola (2014 and 2019).
For more details, visit https://www.bbc.com
Iran attacks two US military targets in Iraq
Iran attacked two American bases in Iraq on 7 January 2020 in retaliation to US President Donald Trump’s decision to kill Qassem Soleimani, the leader of Iran’s elite military and intelligence force.
Iran fired 15 missiles: ten struck al-Asad airbase west of Baghdad, one struck Erbil in northern Iraq; and four failed. While Iranian television stated that at least 80 Americans were killed in attacks, President Trump tweeted, ‘All is well!’
Later, Iranian President Hassan Rouhani said in a television address, ‘We don’t retreat in the face of America. If America has committed a crime… it should know that it will receive a decisive response.’ TV reports also mentioned that if Washington took any retaliatory measures, Iran has 100 other targets in the region already planned.
The Syrian government expressed full solidarity with Iran and said that Tehran has the right to defend itself. The foreign ministry, in a statement said, ‘Syria holds the American regime responsible for all the repercussions due to its reckless policy and arrogant mentality.’
For more details, visit https://www.nytimes.com
Miscellaneous
ICC men’s award winners 2019 announced
The International Cricket Council (ICC) announced the list of men’s winners for their annual awards for 2019 on 15 January 2020. The prestigious Sir Garfield Sobers Trophy for Cricketer of the Year was presented to England’s all rounder Ben Stokes. During the voting period of one year, Stokes played 20 ODIs where he amassed 719 runs and managed to take 12 wickets. He also played 11 tests where he scored 821 runs and took 22 wickets during the same period.
Here’s a list of other ICC Men’s winners 2019:
Test Cricketer of the Year: Pat Cummins (Australia)
ODI Cricketer of the Year: Rohit Sharma (India)
Associate Cricketer of the Year: Kyle Coetzer (Scotland)
Spirit of Cricket Award 2019: Virat Kohli (India)
Umpire of the Year 2019: Richard Illingworth (England)
Men’s T20I Performance of the Year: Deepak Chahar (India)
Men’s Emerging Cricketer of the Year: Marnus Labuschagne (Australia)
ICC had announced the list of women’s winners 2019 on 17 December, where the Rachael Heyhoe-Flint Award for Women’s Cricketer of the Year award and the ICC Women’s ODI Cricketer of the Year award were presented to Ellyse Perry from Australia.
For more details, visit https://www.indiatoday.in
Padma Award winners 2020 announced
The Ministry of Home Affairs released the list of Padma Award winners for 2020 on 25 January. President Ram Nath Kovind will confer the awards on 141 people, including four duo cases (In duo cases, the award is counted as one) from various disciplines at a ceremony in Rashtrapati Bhavan in March/April. The list comprises 16 Padma Bhushan, 118 Padma Shri and 7 Padma Vibhushan awardees. A total of 33 awardees are women, 18 belong to the category of foreigners/NRI/PIO/OCI and 12 have been awarded posthumously.
A few popular names in the list include M C Mary Kom (Sports), P V Sindhu (Sports), Anand Mahindra (Trade and Industry), Karan Johar (Art), Ekta Kapoor (Art), Prithvindra Mukherjee (Literature and Education), Rani Rampal (Sports), Kangna Ranaut (Art). Arun Jaitley (Public Affairs) and Sushma Swaraj (Public Affairs) have been awarded posthumously.
For more details, visit https://mha.gov.in
Pavan Sukhdev and Gretchen C Daily share 2020 Tyler Prize
Banker-turned environmentalist Pavan Sukhdev won the 2020 Tyler Prize on 27 January for his outstanding work in green economy. The UN Environment Programme (UNEP) Goodwill Ambassador Sukhdev will share his award with the conservation biologist Gretchen C Daily. The duo will receive a gold medallion each and share a cash prize of $200,000.
The Tyler Prize, often known as the ‘Nobel Prize for the Environment’, is administered by the University of Southern California. It is one of the oldest international environmental awards and recognises individuals who have contributed significantly towards preserving and enhancing the global environment.
On receiving the honour, Sukhdev said, ‘You don’t have to be an environmentalist to care about protecting the environment. Just ask a farmer who now has to rent beehives to pollinate his crops, because there are no longer enough bees in wild nature to do the job for free. But bees don’t send invoices, so the value of their services is not recognised.’
Currently, Sukhdev serves the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF) as its president. He is also a board member for TEEB Advisory Board, Stockholm Resilience Centre, and the Cambridge Conservation Initiative. Gretchen, on the other hand, is the Bing Professor of Environmental Science at Stanford University and the founder of the Natural Capital Project.
For more details, visit https://www.business-standard.com
Women in metros consume higher of added sugar than men
In a recent survey conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) in association with the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), and sponsored by International Life Sciences Institute-India (ILSI-India), it was found that women in metropolitan cities consume higher quantities of added sugar than men. The findings revealed that women consumed 20.2 grams of sugar per day, while men consumed 18.7 grams per day. However, the overall intake of added sugar in metro cities was 19.5 grams per day, which is much lower than the 30 grams per day limit prescribed by ICMR.
The survey also measured the age-wise consumption of sugar and it was found that adults and elderly people were consuming slightly higher sugar than the younger ones. The highest intake of sugar was observed among adults in the age group of 36-59 years (20.5 grams/ day), followed by elderly in the age group greater than 60 years (20.3 grams/day). While adolescents consumed 19.9 grams/ day, young adults in the age group of 18-35 years consumed marginally lower amounts at 19.4 grams/ day. School and pre-school children consumed 17.6 grams/ day and 15.6 grams/ day of added sugar, respectively.
The findings were based on the dietary data of 2015-16 of 16 major states, which was re-coded recipe-wise and metro city-wise.
For more details, visit https://indianexpress.com
