Current Affairs – September 21, 2025

{GS2 – Social Sector – Health – Issues} India’s Growing Obesity Epidemic

• Context (IE): UNICEF report (2025), based on NFHS data (2006-2021), highlighted a sharp rise in childhood and adolescent obesity in India.

• India is projected to account for 11% of the global obesity burden by 2030, while already ranking among the top five for adult obesity.

Key Findings from UNICEF Report

• Childhood Obesity: The Number of overweight children under five more than doubled between 2006 and 2021.
• Stunting & Undernutrition: 36% of under-five children are stunted; only 11% of breastfed children (6-23 months) receive an adequate diet.
• Anaemia in Women: 57% of women (15-49 years) are anaemic.
• Maternal Linkages: Poor dietary practices of mothers often pass on nutrition deficits to children.

Causes of Rising Obesity

• Increasing consumption of ultra-processed foods high in sugar, unhealthy fats, and salt is replacing traditional diets rich in fruits and vegetables.
• Urban youth lead more sedentary lifestyles due to lifestyle changes and a lack of physical activity infrastructure.
• Cultural and social norms influence food choices and nutritional deficits, with adolescent girls and women often eating last and least.
• Low-income groups rely heavily on cheap, calorie-dense but nutritionally poor carbohydrates in diets.

Government Initiatives

• Policy Framework: Fit India Movement, Eat Right India campaign, POSHAN Abhiyaan 2.0, and Saksham Anganwadi.
• Awareness Measures: Schools and offices are encouraged to display sugar and oil consumption boards.
• Nutrition Schemes: Take-home rations, iron & folic acid supplementation, & focus on acute malnutrition.

Policy Recommendations by UNICEF

• Recognise both undernutrition and obesity as public health issues affecting different classes.
• Move beyond calorie sufficiency to ensure intake of proteins, vitamins, fruits, and vegetables.
• Invest in cycling tracks, playgrounds, and public fitness infrastructure.
• Stronger checks on the marketing of ultra-processed foods targeting children.
• Extend nutrition and lifestyle interventions beyond women and children to all age groups to counter NCDs like diabetes, hypertension, and heart disease.

Read More About > Obesity

{GS2 – Vulnerable Sections – Children} Child Marriage in India

• Context (TH): The Sample Registration System (SRS) 2023 shows 2.1% of Indian females were married before 18, the national average for child marriage.

• West Bengal continues to record the highest rate of child marriages in India at 6.3%.

Causes of Child Marriage in India

• Poverty: About 23% of women aged 20-24 were married before 18 (NFHS-5). Poor families marry off daughters early to lessen financial burdens like dowry and household costs.
• Cultural Beliefs: Child marriage is practised to preserve family honour and girls’ chastity, especially in patriarchal communities, despite legal bans.
• Patriarchy: Entrenched gender norms, dowry and community pressures still drive early unions.
• Education: Only around 47% of rural girls complete secondary schooling (UNICEF), limiting their ability to challenge early marriage.
• Safety Concerns: High rates of violence against women (over 37,000 cases in 2023, NCRB) cause families to marry daughters early for protection.
• Weak Enforcement: Though the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act (PCMA), 2006, bans child marriage, enforcement is inconsistent with low conviction rates, especially in rural regions.

Policy implications

• Cash transfers alone are insufficient; multi-sectoral action is essential. Education, health, social protection, and law enforcement must converge.
• Urban strategies need to be different from rural ones, such as targeting slums, migrant families and night-schools, adolescent-friendly services.
• Real-time monitoring (linking Anganwadi, UDISE data with legal ID systems) is needed to identify at-risk girls early.

Way Forward

• Combine cash benefit (like Kanyashree scheme) with guaranteed skilling, so delaying marriage has a tangible economic payoff.
• Pilot “Urban Adolescent Protection Cells” in high-incidence municipal wards, offering evening schools, counselling, birth-registration drives and legal aid.
• Link one-time grants to completion of secondary schooling (class X or equivalent) and vocational placement verification.
• Mandatory, rapid birth registration drives, issue school-linked age certificates to prevent fake ages at marriage.

{GS3 – Infra – Airways} Porta Cabins

• Context (IE): Bihar inaugurated its fourth civilian airport at Purnea, built with prefabricated porta cabins under the UDAN scheme.

• Porta cabins are modular buildings made in factories from steel or polyurethane foam and then transported for installation at the site.
• Benefits: Porta cabins offer low-cost terminals that can be operational within weeks, bypassing land acquisition delays; they also enable modular expansion.
• Challenges: They offer limited durability, space, amenities, & lack premium facilities and aesthetic appeal.
• Previous Use: Airports at Shirdi in Maharashtra, Hubballi and Kalaburagi in Karnataka, and Chitrakoot in Uttar Pradesh also began operations using such cabins.

{GS3 – Agri – Sustainability} Indian Agriculture and Shifting Monsoon Patterns

• Context (BS): In 2025, the southwest monsoon began early and is retreating prematurely with 7% excess rainfall, highlighting weather variability as the new normal.

Implications

• Higher Rainfall: The Central Water Commission reported reservoir storage exceeded previous years, supporting irrigation, but heavy rains caused increased natural disasters and crop losses.
• Temperature Dynamics: Early cold weather benefits wheat, barley, and mustard in North India, but cold waves and frost remain concerns for farmers in Gujarat’s Kutch.
• Food Security: A higher wheat production forecast of about 117 MT in 2025 boosts food security, although harvest rains damaging crops often lead to inflation.
• Farm Incomes: Agricultural and processed food exports grew 9% year-on-year in April–July 2025, strengthening farmer earnings, though rainfall shocks still threaten perishables like vegetables.

Way Forward

• Weather Services: Scale up satellite-based tools like WINDS and Krishi-DSS to enhance crop monitoring and yield forecasting for data-driven agricultural transformation.
• Crop Insurance: Expand schemes like PM Fasal Bima Yojana to districts vulnerable to frost and rain.
• Water Management: Reservoirs currently at about 84% storage (CWC) must be used judiciously, with parallel investments in drainage for flood-prone areas.
• Climate Resilience: Investing in resilient seed varieties and decentralised food storage will enhance long-term adaptability.

Read More > Recent Monsoon Trends | Early Southwest Monsoon Onset 2025

{GS3 – Envi – Air Pollution} Stubble Burning *

• Context (NIE): The Supreme Court urged the Centre to consider jail terms for stubble burning and asked CAQM to find alternatives to blanket bans, which affect workers’ livelihoods.

About Stubble Burning

• Stubble burning is the deliberate burning of leftover paddy stalks, adopted as a low-cost method to rapidly clear fields during the narrow interval between rice harvest and wheat sowing.
• Consequences: The resulting smoke worsens Delhi-NCR winter smog, harms health, decreases soil fertility, and emits greenhouse gases.
• Alternatives: Options include in-situ machines such as the Happy Seeder, bio-decomposer solutions, ex-situ uses like baling for biomass, and crop diversification towards less residue-intensive crops.

Read in Depth > Stubble Burning | Delhi Air Pollution

{GS3 – S&T – Tech} India’s Opportunity to Attract Top Talent in Critical Technologies

• Context (IE): Global shifts like U.S. science funding cuts and stricter visa norms have opened a window for India to attract top talent in critical technologies.

India’s Research Profile and Challenges

• India contributes only 2.5% of the world’s highly-cited scientific papers and 2% of the top global researchers.
• China dominates key technologies while India, despite ranking in the top 5 in 29 technologies, lacks consistent breakthrough ecosystems.
• Compensation, research facilities, and long-term career pathways remain uncompetitive.
• Recruitment is often disconnected from national missions, leading to fragmented results.

Proposed Solutions

• Establish permanent Focused Research Organisations (FROs) within leading institutions in frontier technology domains.
• Attract at least 500 top researchers over five years, with a focus on early-career scientists.
• Integrate Indian talent through joint appointments, rotational leadership, and project-based entry.
• Aim for continuity, predictable funding, and clear pathways for global talent absorption.
  • For example, IIT Delhi plays a role in quantum communication research as a national anchor.

Design Principles for Maximum Impact

• Use pooled industry and state resources for world-class salaries and sustained research funding.
• Start a strategic mission focused on selected sovereign technologies.
• Create hybrid ecosystems by blending global expertise, indigenous knowledge, and industry support.
• Ensure permanent, mission-driven structures for long-term innovation and talent retention.

{GS3 – S&T – AI} Human Cost of Artificial Intelligence

• Context (TH): Artificial Intelligence (AI), hailed as the digital economy’s backbone, relies on the often invisible, underpaid labour of workers who train and sustain its systems.

Human Role in AI Training

• Machines cannot process raw data without human input; data annotators label images, videos, audio, and text to help AI learn concepts like colours, objects, and road signs.
• Large Language Models (LLMs) like ChatGPT and Gemini rely on annotators during supervised learning and reinforcement learning phases to fine-tune accuracy and remove errors.
• Much of this work is outsourced to countries like India, Kenya, Pakistan, China, and the Philippines, where labour is cheaper and largely unregulated.

Invisible Labour Behind “Automation”

• Content Moderation: Social media feeds marketed as “automatically” filtered rely on human moderators who examine disturbing content (pornography, violence, etc.) to train AI filters.
  • These workers often suffer PTSD, anxiety, and depression.
• Voice & Motion Capture: AI-generated voices, music, and videos are trained using human actors, sometimes even children, who record movements, songs, or conversations.
• Gig Work: To cut costs, companies outsource through digital platforms where workers are paid per microtask, easily dismissed for not meeting targets.

Exploitation and Risks

• Low Pay: Workers in counties like Kenya often earn less than $2 an hour for high-stress jobs, described as “modern-day slavery.”
• Suppressed Rights: Attempts to organise or demand better conditions are met with dismissals, while subcontracting hides accountability.
• Hidden Chains: Fragmented labour networks ensure opacity and prevent legal or social protections for workers.

Way Forward

• Transparency: Mandate disclosure of labour supply chains for AI companies.
• Fair Pay: Establish global minimum standards for wages, working hours, and occupational safety for digital workers.
• Awareness: Among consumers and policymakers that AI efficiency is not “cost-free”, it is powered by human toil.

Read More > Socio-Economic Effects of AI | Global AI Governance | AI and the Indian Workforce