Nadaprabhu Kempegowda

Why in News?

• The Prime Minister of India has recently unveiled a 108-foot statue of Nadaprabhu Kempegowda and inaugurated Terminal 2 of Bengaluru airport, which is named after the 16th-century figure credited with founding the city.

Highlights

• As per the ‘World Book of Records’, it is the first and the tallest bronze statue of a founder of a city.
• Renowned sculptor and Padma Bhushan awardee Ram Vanji Sutar has designed the statue.
• Sutar had built the ‘Statue of Unity’ in Gujarat and the statue of Mahatma Gandhi in Bengaluru’s ‘Vidhana Soudha’.
• As a precursor to the unveiling, ‘Mruthike’ (sacred mud) was collected from over 22,000 locations across the state, which was mixed symbolically with the mud beneath one of the four towers of the statue.
• He was born In 1513 in a village near Yelahanka.
• He was the chieftain under the Vijayanagara Empire of the 16th century.
• He is an iconic figure among Vokkaligas, Karnataka’s second most dominant community after Lingayats.
• He studied for nine years in a GuruKula near Aigondapura (present day Hessaraghatta) where he learnt statecraft and martial skills.
• He Is widely acknowledged as the founder of Bengaluru, Karnataka.
• It is said that he conceived the idea of a new city while hunting with his minister, and later marked its territory by erecting towers in four corners of the proposed city.
• He Is also credited with having developed around 1,000 lakes in the city to cater to its drinking and agricultural needs.
• Kempegowda has been credited for abolishing the practice of cutting the fingers of the left hand of an unmarried woman during a custom known as ‘Bandi Devaru’, an important custom of Morasu Vokkaligas.

Eat Right Station

Why in News?

• Bhopal Railway Station has recently been awarded a 4- star ‘Eat Right Station’ certification for providing high-quality, nutritious food to passengers.

Highlights

• The 4-star rating indicates full compliance by the station to ensure safe and hygienic food is available to passengers.
• The ‘Eat Right Station’ certification is awarded by Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to railway stations that set benchmarks in providing safe and wholesome food to passengers.
• The station Is awarded a certificate upon a conclusion of an FSSAI-empanelled third-party audit agency with ratings from 1 to 5. The certification is part of the ‘Eat Right India’ movement.
• It is an initiative of FSSAI to transform the country’s food system in order to ensure safe, healthy and sustainable food for all Indians. Its tagline is ‘Sahi Bhojan, Behtar Jeevan’.
• It Is aligned to the National Health Policy 2017 with its focus on preventive and promotive healthcare and flagship programmes like Ayushman Bharat, POSHAN Abhiyaan, Anaemia Mukt Bharat and Swachh Bharat Mission.
• Eat Right India adopts a judicious mix of regulatory, capacity building, collaborative, and empowerment approaches to ensure that our food is suitable both for the people and the planet. Access to sufficient amounts of safe food is key to sustaining life and promoting good health.
• Foodborne illnesses are usually infectious or toxic in nature and often invisible to the plain eye, caused by bacteria, viruses, parasites or chemical substances entering the body through contaminated food or water.
• An estimated 4,20,000 people around the world die every year after eating contaminated food and children under 5 years of age carry 40% of the foodborne disease burden, with 1,25, 000 deaths every year.
• Food safety has a critical role in assuring that food stays safe at every stage of the food chain – from production to harvest, processing, storage, distribution, all the way to preparation and consumption. Food production is responsible for up to 30% of global greenhouse-gas emissions contributing to global warmingGlobal Vaccine Market Report 2022

Why in News?

• The World Health Organisation (WHO) has recently released ‘Global Vaccine Market Report 2022’

Highlights

• It shows that inequitable distribution is not unique to Covid-19 vaccines, with low-income countries consistently struggling to access vaccines that are in-demand by high-income countries. Limited vaccine supply and unequal distribution drive global disparities.
• The human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine against cervical cancer has only been introduced in 41% of low-income countries, even though they represent much of the disease burden, compared to 83% of high-income countries.
• Affordability is a major obstacle to vaccine access. While prices tend to be tiered by income, price disparities see middle-income countries paying as much – or even more – than wealthier ones for several vaccine products.
• Free market dynamics is depriving some of the world’s poorest and most vulnerable people of their right to health. Therefore, changes are much needed to the global vaccine market to save lives, prevent disease and prepare for future crises.
• Approximately 16 billion vaccine doses, worth US$ 141 billion, were supplied in 2021, almost three times the 2019 market volume (5.8 billion) and nearly three-and-a-half times the 2019 market value (US$ 38 billion).
• The Increase was primarily driven by Covid-19 vaccines, showing the incredible potential of how vaccine manufacturing can be scaled up in response to health needs
• Although manufacturing capacity worldwide has increased, it remains highly concentrated.
• Ten manufacturers alone provide 70% of vaccine doses (excluding COVID-19).
• Several of the top 20 most widely used vaccines (such as PCV, HPV, measles and rubella containing vaccines) each currently rely mainly on two suppliers.
• In 2021, the African and Eastern Mediterranean regions were dependent on manufacturers headquartered elsewhere for 90% of their procured vaccines.
• This concentrated manufacturing base leads to risk of shortages as well as regional supply insecurity.
• Entrenched intellectual property monopolies and limited technology transfer further limit the ability of building and using local manufacturing capacityMangrove Alliance for Climate

Why in News?

• During the COP27 climate summit in Sharm El Sheikh, Egypt, the UAE and Indonesia has recently announced the “Mangrove Alliance for Climate

Highlights

• It includes UAE, Indonesia, India, Sri Lanka, Australia, Japan, and Spain.
• It seeks to educate and spread awareness worldwide on the role of mangroves in curbing global warming and its potential as a solution for climate change.
• However, the intergovernmental alliance works on a voluntary basis which means that there are no real checks and balances to hold members accountable.
• Instead, the parties will decide their own commitments and deadlines regarding planting and restoring mangroves.
• The members will also share expertise and support each other in researching, managing and protecting coastal areas.
• Mangroves are defined as assemblages of salt tolerant trees and shrubs that grow in the intertidal regions of the tropical and subtropical coastlines.
• They grow luxuriantly in the places where freshwater mixes with seawater and where sediment is composed of accumulated deposits of mud
• Mangroves trap and cycle various organic materials, chemical elements, and important nutrients in the coastal ecosystem.
• They provide one of the basic food chain resources for marine organisms.
• They provide physical habitat and nursery grounds for a wide variety of marine organisms, many of which have important recreational or commercial value.
• Mangroves also serve as storm buffers by reducing wind and wave action in shallow shoreline areas.