Latest news with #AndyMukherjee
Mint
05-06-2025
- Business
- Mint
Jagdambika Pal: Minimize food wastage for the sake of our planet and its people
Food loss and waste is a global concern that represents not just economic loss, but also the environmental and food security crisis. To put it into perspective, if food waste were a country, it would be the third-largest emitter of greenhouse gases in the world, surpassing the US and China. Food waste accounts for nearly 8-10% of annual global greenhouse gas emissions, which is nearly three times the total emissions from the aviation sector. Decaying food emits methane, a greenhouse gas about 80 times more potent than carbon dioxide. Food production and its inputs emit climate-harming gases too. Paradoxically, while nearly 20% of all food produced is wasted or lost, around 783 million people are grappling with hunger and about 150 million children under the age of five are suffering from stunted growth due to lack of proper nutrition. Also Read: Andy Mukherjee: Watch out for food and fuel volatility in India-US trade talks Tackling food loss and waste is essential for us to address food and nutritional security challenges and significantly reduce greenhouse gas emissions. The pressing need to tackle the problem is articulated in India's commitment to Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 12.3, which sets an ambitious target of reducing per capita global food waste at the retail and consumption levels and significantly cutting food loss along supply chains by 2030. As estimated, even if just a quarter of all the food binned by households globally is edible, the equivalent of 1 billion meals of edible food is being wasted every single day by homes worldwide. The United Nations Environment Programme's Food Waste Index Report 2024 states that up to 17% of food wastage occurs between the retail and consumption levels. This presents substantial opportunities for targeted intervention at these points, such as sustainable packaging solutions that may prolong the shelf-life of food, thereby providing a practical solution to the issue. We also need to improve infrastructure and include practices to preserve nutritional value and reduce wastage. Also Read: Food security: Let clean-tech innovation lead the way While only 21 countries had included food loss or waste reduction in their national climate plans (or Nationally Determined Contributions) by 2022, India has taken great strides to mitigate the same through coordinated measures at every stage of the supply chain by implementing schemes like the PM Kisan Sampada Yojana and production-linked incentive scheme for the food processing industry. These government programmes focus on modernizing infrastructure, adopting advanced preservation and packaging technologies, reducing wastage and enhancing supply chain efficiency. Programmes for the creation of backward and forward linkages and the creation of food processing capacities have been designed to drive infrastructural improvements that reduce spoilage and strengthen farm-to-market supply chains. Additionally, the Integrated Cold Chain and Value Addition Infrastructure Scheme provides fiscal support for upgradations with the aim of preserving nutritional value, increasing shelf life and raising food quality. Also Read: Rice fortification can help tackle our problem of hidden hunger While addressing the crisis we face requires a collaborative approach in favour of a circular economy that integrates sustainable methods in all operations, it is equally important to ensure that food reaches consumers more efficiently. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization, up to 30-40% of food production in developing regions is lost before it even reaches the market, largely because of gaps in post-harvest storage, processing and transportation. Food processing capabilities must be upgraded for food safety and shelf-life extension, among other objectives. Improved storage facilities and eco-friendly packaging are crucial to this endeavour, even as innovative means of food preservation need to be explored. Harnessing the potential of sustainable solutions like aseptic packaging with recyclable and eco-friendly materials would help reduce the ecological footprint of the processed food industry. Generating awareness among consumers of responsible and eco-friendly practices through public-private partnerships and public campaigns can be of help in this exercise. Successfully addressing the crisis of food loss and waste needs dedicated efforts by the entire ecosystem of producers, suppliers and consumers. Food loss and waste must be minimized across the supply chain from end to end. By doing so, countries and communities will benefit from increased food security, better access to healthy diets and reduced malnutrition, while decreasing their greenhouse gas footprints. The author is a member of the Lok Sabha.
Mint
25-05-2025
- Mint
Hold tight, a global metro railway boom has only just begun
On a winter's morning in 1863, a revolution in urban living began. A group of dignitaries boarded a train in Paddington on the north-western fringes of London, and travelled by tunnel six stops to Farringdon, just north of the old heart of the city. The Metropolitan Railway, which you can still ride today as part of the London Underground, was the first to put regular trains on dedicated tracks, cutting through the gridlock that would otherwise plague modern cities. Over the years, networks sprouted in Paris, New York, Tokyo, Moscow, Hong Kong, Cairo and elsewhere. By 2013, they encompassed over 130 cities, stretching 10,922km—long enough to get you from the equator to the North Pole. Also Read: Andy Mukherjee: India's EV race with China may depend on high-speed trains What's most remarkable is what has happened since. Far from slowing down, we've added almost as much track in the past 10 years as was built in the previous 150, hitting 20,453 km in 2023, according to new figures from UITP, an International Association of Public Transport. The great era of metro railways is only just dawning. That might seem surprising if you live in one of the many developed cities where extensions of old public transport systems are megaprojects that can take decades to finish. Pay a visit to Asia, however, and it's obvious where the growth has been. From a 19% share of the global track network in 2012, China had grown to a 43% share by 2023. The boom even extended to isolated places. After just seven years in operation, the Guiyang Metro in the mountainous backwater of Guizhou Province carries more passengers than Chicago's L train, opened in 1893. Mainland China has 28 systems busier than Guiyang, including four of the world's biggest networks in Shanghai, Beijing, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Also Read: India's metro rail systems should become financially sustainable It's not just a Chinese story. Over the same decade, metros carrying more than 100 million passengers annually have been opened in Dhaka, Salvador, Chennai, Hyderabad, Mumbai and Lima. Riyadh's, which started in December, will hit the same scale during its first 12 months in operation. Dozens of smaller networks have started up since 2013 too in Doha, Ho Chi Minh City, Isfahan, Jakarta, Lagos, Lahore, Panama City, Quito and other cities. Not every transit project is a success. In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia and Abuja, Chinese-built public networks opened in 2015 and 2018 respectively have struggled due to poor planning, sparse timetables and a shortage of local parts. In Karachi, the biggest city in the world to lack a metro network, a commuter railway circling the city was closed in 1999 amid a welter of mismanagement, fare dodging and corruption. Talks about reopening it with yet more Chinese money have been dragging on for years. Those are exceptions, though. Once built, most metros attract the passionate loyalty of their passengers and the enthusiastic assent of urban planners, ensuring that money will be found to keep them going through the darkest times. Also Read: We must focus on public transportation to improve productivity After all, the past decade's boom took place against the backdrop of probably the single biggest blow ever suffered by urban public transport—the covid pandemic. The collapse of office work during lockdowns, followed by the more gradual shift toward working from home, was financially devastating. At time, many feared that public transport may enter a death spiral, as declining ticket sales forced networks to reduce services, further depressing passenger numbers. Covid has left a long shadow, to be sure, but things are improving rapidly. As many as 58 billion people took trips by metro in 2023, according to the UITP, finally surpassing the 57.9 billion figure of 2019. That is helping repair budgets. In the worst days of the pandemic, London's Mayor Sadiq Khan warned that one of the Underground's lines may have to close altogether to help the city balance its books. Last year, Transport for London posted its first operating surplus in the transit agency's 25-year history. The shift of billions of passengers from roads to rails is helping save hundreds of millions of metric tonnes of carbon emissions, but that's probably not the largest benefit. While the carbon footprint of a metro trip is vastly smaller than in a private car, it's about the same as that of a shared minibus—the main competitor in the developing megacities where urban rail networks are growing fastest. Instead, the greatest advantage of the shift is the way that it is freeing hundreds of millions from the drudgery of endless urban traffic. A future where it's more pleasant to live and work in the walkable centres of dense cities rather than sprawling, car-dependent suburbs will be one that's better for the climate, our economies and for human happiness too. ©Bloomberg The author is a Bloomberg Opinion columnist covering climate change and energy.
Bloomberg
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Bloomberg
India's Caste Census Is a Crucial Step Toward Equality
For the first time in almost 100 years, 1.4 billion Indians will name their caste in a census. Bloomberg Opinion columnist Andy Mukherjee explains why it's so important. (Source: Bloomberg)
