The Evening Wrap: India reiterates call for 'sovereign, independent, viable state of Palestine'

India reiterated its call for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state on Thursday, with the Ministry of External Affairs saying that there was an “obligation” to uphold humanitarian principles. Operation Vijay, India’s mission to rescue its citizens from conflict-hit Israel, will begin on Thursday evening, with the first flight expected to evacuate 230 Indians, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at his weekly press briefing. He added that India is in close contact with “relevant stakeholders” on the fast unfolding situation. “India always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel,” Bagchi said, emphasising that India’s position on Palestine has been “longstanding and consistent” and that there has been no change in that policy. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a round of meetings with Ministry officials to take stock of the situation. On Operation Ajay, Bagchi said: “The ferry flight is expected to reach [Israel] later this evening and around 230 passengers will be evacuated in the first flight.” He added that are around 18,000 Indians in Israel right now, with about a dozen in the West Bank, and at least four in the Gaza Strip that is being bombed by Israel. “This is a dynamic situation. It is evolving. I would request Indians in Israel, please do register with the Embassy of India if you have not registered till now. We will have more flights depending on the demand for them,” Bagchi said, indicating that the Union government is keeping “all options” on the table and will press more aircraft into service for the operation if needed. One Indian, a caregiver from Kerala, was injured in the attack by Hamas last Saturday, Bagchi said, adding that the person is currently undergoing treatment. “There has been no Indian casualty,” he said. Bagchi categorically stated that India considers last Saturday’s strike against Israel a “terrorist attack”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condemned terrorism and expressed solidarity with the Israeli people following the attack by Hamas on Saturday. The official spokesperson said that there was a “universal obligation” to observe humanitarian law, but also emphasised the requirement to fight against international terrorism. However, Bagchi did not give a clear answer to a journalist’s question on whether India considers Hamas a terror organisation. Saying that such a determination was the responsibility of other departments, the MEA spokesperson said, “Our focus is to help our citizens.” His comments were the first set of detailed remarks from the MEA about the situation in West Asia, since Saturday’s air, land and sea attack on Israel and its retaliatory air attack on the Gaza Strip. Israel-Hamas war | Palestinians rush to buy food, struggle under strikes as Israel readies possible ground operation Palestinians lined up outside bakeries and grocery stores in Gaza on Thursday after spending the night surrounded by the ruins of pulverized neighbourhoods darkened by a near-total power outage. Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion. International aid groups warned that the death toll in Gaza could mount after Israel stopped all deliveries of food, water, fuel and electricity and the tiny enclave’s crossing with Egypt closed. The war — which was ignited by a bloody and wide-ranging assault on Israel by Hamas militants — has already claimed at least 2,600 lives on both sides. Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver” should political leaders order one. A ground offensive in Gaza, whose 2.3 million residents are densely packed into a sliver of land only 40 kilometers (25 miles) long, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting. As Israel pounds Gaza, Hamas fighters have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since their weekend assault. Militants in the territory are also holding an estimated 150 people taken hostage from Israel. Palestinians fleeing airstrikes could be seen running through the streets, carrying their belongings and looking for a safe place. Tens of thousands have crowded into U.N.-run schools while others are staying with relatives or even strangers who let them in. Lines formed outside bakeries and grocery stores during the few hours they dared open, as people tried to stock on food before shelves are emptied. On Wednesday, Gaza’s only power station ran out of fuel and shut down, leaving only lights powered by scattered private generators. A senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the lack of electricity could cripple hospitals. “As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director. “Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said nothing would be allowed into Gaza until the captives were released. “Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he tweeted. After Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush and destroy” the group, which has governed Gaza since 2007. “Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Netanyahu said in a televised address late Wednesday. The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to topple the militant group rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza after four previous conflicts ended with Hamas still firmly in charge of the territory. Israel has mobilised 360,000 reservists, massed additional forces near Gaza and evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities. Netanyahu now has the backing of a new war Cabinet that includes a long time opposition politician. The U.S. has also pledged unwavering support, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday to meet with Israeli leaders. He plans to meet Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority is confined to the occupied West Bank, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in a 1967 war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state, but there have been no peace talks in over a decade. In Gaza, the Israeli military said overnight strikes targeted Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces, including command centers used by the fighters who attacked Israel on Saturday, and the home of a senior Hamas naval operative that it said was used to store unspecified weapons. Other airstrikes killed commanders from two smaller militant groups, according to media linked to those organizations. Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership,” Hecht, the military spokesman, said of Hamas. “Not only the military leadership, but also the governmental leadership, all the way up to (top Hamas leader Yehia) Sinwar.” The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Israeli strikes demolished two multistory houses without warning, killing and wounding “a large number” of people, mainly civilians. Hamas has threatened to kill hostages if Israel strikes Palestinian civilians without warning. While Israel has insisted that it is giving notice of its strikes, it is employing a new tactic of leveling whole neighborhoods, rather than just individual buildings. And Israeli military briefings have emphasised the destruction wrought. Hecht said Israel was not “doing carpet bombing, though some people would like to see that.” He said targeting decisions were based on intelligence and civilians were warned. Even with the evacuation warnings, Palestinians say some are unable to escape or have nowhere to go, and that entire families have been crushed under rubble. Other times, strikes come with no notice, survivors say. “There was no warning or anything,” said Hashem Abu Manea, 58, who lost his 15-year-old daughter, Joanna, when a strike late Tuesday leveled his home in Gaza City. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Thursday when Israeli settlers sprayed bullets at a funeral for three people killed in a settler rampage the day before. Footage showed Jewish settlers in their cars swerving into the funeral procession and cutting off the road before stopping and opening fire. Shock, grief and demands for vengeance against Hamas are running high in Israel since Saturday’s assault. Armed settlers have rampaged through West Bank villages and hurled stones at passing Palestinian cars, residents say. The Health Ministry says 28 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and two in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since Saturday. The U.N. said late Wednesday the number of people displaced by the airstrikes had soared 30% within 24 hours, to 339,000, two-thirds of them crowding into U.N. schools. Others sought shelter in the shrinking number of safe neighborhoods. The U.N. humanitarian office said Israeli strikes have leveled 1,000 homes since the retaliation began last Saturday, with another 560 housing units severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable. It said an Israeli cutoff has resulted in dire water shortages for over 650,000 people. Sewage systems have been destroyed, sending fetid wastewater into the streets. Egypt has engaged in intensive talks with Israel and the United States to allow the delivery of aid and fuel through its Rafah crossing point, which is closed after an airstrike hit nearby earlier this week. But it has pushed back against proposals to establish corridors out of Gaza, saying an an exodus of Palestinians would have grave consequences for their hopes of one day establishing an independent state. Egypt is also likely concerned about a potential influx of hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The death toll in Gaza rose to more than 1,350 killed, the Palestinian health ministry said. Bihar train accident | High-level inquiry ordered, many trains diverted as restoration works continue The railways on October 12 ordered a high-level inquiry into the derailment of the Delhi-Kamakhya North East Express in Bihar’s Buxar district, in which four persons were killed and several people injured, officials said. Twenty-three coaches of the train, on the way to Assam from Delhi, derailed near the Raghunathpur station around 9.53 p.m. on October 11, they said. “A high-level inquiry has been ordered to investigate the reason behind the incident,” East Central Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer Birendra Kumar said in a statement. An ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh will be given to the next of kin of each deceased, and ₹50,000 will be given to the injured, he said. ECR general manager Tarun Prakash, who is in Raghunathpur to supervise the restoration works, told PTI-Video that the priority is to clear the tracks. “The number of casualties is four. The number of injured passengers is 40. The cause of derailment will be known only after a proper investigation. At present our priority is to clear the tracks. Until normal traffic is restored, trains running on the route will be diverted,” he said. However, a Railway Police Force (RPF) officer had on October 11 night said that at least 70 people were injured in the accident, and taken to local hospitals. On the other side, the statement issued by the ECR said that while five passengers were critically injured, 25 received minor injuries. Prakash said that the cause of the accident will be known only after the investigation is complete. Meanwhile, all passengers of the train bound for Kamakhya in Guwahati in Assam, who were in a position to undertake the onward journey, boarded a relief train in the early hours of Thursday, officials said. Cranes and equipment used in cutting through metal are being used for clearing the tracks, where lay a number of derailed coaches, some of which overturned, they said. The injured people were undergoing treatment at hospitals mostly in Buxar town and Ara, where the neighbouring Bhojpur district is headquartered, officials said. Ten injured passengers were taken to AIIMS-Patna, they added. “Ten patients have been admitted to the Trauma Center of AIIMS-Patna. Six of them had minor injuries,” its executive director doctor Gopal Krushna Pal told PTI, adding that the other four persons have fractures in various parts of their bodies. “No one required ventilator support. No one is in a life-threatening condition. The treatment of the four people who had fractures is going on very well,” he added. Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who is the MP from Buxar, spoke to the director of AIIMS-Patna. India ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in Global Hunger Index India ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023 with its progress against hunger nearly halted since 2015 reflecting a global trend. Afghanistan, Haiti and 12 sub-Saharan countries perform worse than India on the GHI. India’s ranking is based on a Global Hunger Index score of 28.7 on a 100-point scale where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. This categorises India’s severity of hunger as “serious”. The GHI score is based on a formula that combines four indicators that together capture the multi-dimensional nature of hunger and these include under-nourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. While India made significant strides between 2000 and 2015 with its score improving from 38.4 in 2000 to 35.5 in 2008 and 29.2 in 2015, over the past eight years it has advanced by only 0.5 points. The 2000, 2008 and 2015 GHI scores are the only data that can be used for valid comparisons over time. India’s performance mirrors a global trend. The 2023 GHI score for the world is 18.3, considered moderate. However, it is only one point below the world’s 2015 GHI score of 19.1. The share of people globally who are undernourished, which is one of the indicators used in the index, actually rose from 7.5% in 2017 to 9.2% in 2022, reaching about 735 million. Over the recent past, the government of India has contested India’s score in the GHI and called it an “attempt to tarnish the image” of the country. It has accused the publishers of using Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) telephone-based opinion poll -- the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) -- which the GHI has categorically denied using. The GHI says that the undernourishment data the government objected to was in fact based on Food Balance sheet data from each country. South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara are the world regions with the highest hunger levels, with GHI scores of 27.0 each, indicating serious hunger. West Asia and North Africa is the region with the third-highest hunger level with a score of 11.9 indicating “moderate” hunger level. Latin American and the Caribbean is the only region in the world whose GHI scores have worsened between 2015 and 2023. East and Southeast Asia, dominated by populous China, has the second-lowest 2023 GHI score of any region in the report. China, for example, is among the top 20 countries that each have a GHI score of less than 5. The region with the lowest 2023 GHI score is Europe and Central Asia, whose score of 6.0 is considered “low”. According to the GHI 2023 report, the stagnation in the fight against global hunger is largely due “to the combined effects of overlapping crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, economic stagnation, the impacts of climate change, and the intractable conflicts facing many countries of the world.” It adds that the combination of these crises have led to a cost of living crisis and exhausted the coping capacity of many countries. In Brief: Canadian Speaker skips G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit Amid a diplomatic row, Speaker of the Canadian Senate Raymonde Gagne has decided to skip the Presiding Officers’ Summit of Parliaments of G20 nations that began in New Delhi on Thursday. Gagne had earlier confirmed her presence at the Parliament-20 meeting chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. “The Canadian Speaker is not attending the Summit. Schedules keep changing,” Parliamentary sources said. Earlier, Birla had said he would raise “several issues” in his informal talks with the Speaker of the Canadian Senate. The P20 meeting got underway on Thursday with Parliamentarians of G20 nations participating in the Parliamentary Forum on LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), a movement proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Centre upgrades security cover of EAM Jaishankar The security cover of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has been upgraded from the ‘Y’ category to ‘Z’, official sources said on Thursday. The Union home ministry has asked the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to take the charge of his security, currently provided by the Delhi Police, they said. Jaishankar, 68, was being guarded by an armed team of the Delhi Police under the ‘Y’ category security cover. He will now be protected by the CRPF under the larger ‘Z’ category security cover which entails about 14-15 armed commandos moving with him round the clock in shifts across the country, the sources said. The CRPF’s VIP security cover has 176-odd protectees at present. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. [logo] The Evening Wrap 12 October 2023 [The Hindu logo] Welcome to the Evening Wrap newsletter, your guide to the day’s biggest stories with concise analysis from The Hindu. [[Arrow]Open in browser]( [[Mail icon]More newsletters]( India reiterates call for “sovereign, independent, viable state of Palestine” [India reiterated its call for the creation of a sovereign Palestinian state]( on Thursday, with the Ministry of External Affairs saying that there was an “obligation” to uphold humanitarian principles. Operation Vijay, India’s mission to rescue its citizens from conflict-hit Israel, will begin on Thursday evening, with the first flight expected to evacuate 230 Indians, MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said at his weekly press briefing. He added that India is in close contact with “relevant stakeholders” on the fast unfolding situation. “India always advocated the resumption of direct negotiations towards establishing a sovereign, independent and viable state of Palestine, living within secure and recognised borders, side by side at peace with Israel,” Bagchi said, emphasising that India’s position on Palestine has been “longstanding and consistent” and that there has been no change in that policy. Earlier in the day, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar held a round of meetings with Ministry officials to take stock of the situation. On Operation Ajay, Bagchi said: “The ferry flight is expected to reach [Israel] later this evening and around 230 passengers will be evacuated in the first flight.” He added that are around 18,000 Indians in Israel right now, with about a dozen in the West Bank, and at least four in the Gaza Strip that is being bombed by Israel. “This is a dynamic situation. It is evolving. I would request Indians in Israel, please do register with the Embassy of India if you have not registered till now. We will have more flights depending on the demand for them,” Bagchi said, indicating that the Union government is keeping “all options” on the table and will press more aircraft into service for the operation if needed. One Indian, a caregiver from Kerala, was injured in the attack by Hamas last Saturday, Bagchi said, adding that the person is currently undergoing treatment. “There has been no Indian casualty,” he said. Bagchi categorically stated that India considers last Saturday’s strike against Israel a “terrorist attack”. Prime Minister Narendra Modi had condemned terrorism and expressed solidarity with the Israeli people following the attack by Hamas on Saturday. The official spokesperson said that there was a “universal obligation” to observe humanitarian law, but also emphasised the requirement to fight against international terrorism. However, Bagchi did not give a clear answer to a journalist’s question on whether India considers Hamas a terror organisation. Saying that such a determination was the responsibility of other departments, the MEA spokesperson said, “Our focus is to help our citizens.” His comments were the first set of detailed remarks from the MEA about the situation in West Asia, since Saturday’s air, land and sea attack on Israel and its retaliatory air attack on the Gaza Strip. Israel-Hamas war | Palestinians rush to buy food, struggle under strikes as Israel readies possible ground operation [Palestinians lined up outside bakeries and grocery stores in Gaza on Thursday after spending the night surrounded by the ruins of pulverized neighbourhoods darkened by a near-total power outage](. Israel launched new airstrikes and said it was preparing for a possible ground invasion. International aid groups warned that the death toll in Gaza could mount after Israel stopped all deliveries of food, water, fuel and electricity and the tiny enclave’s crossing with Egypt closed. The war — which was ignited by a bloody and wide-ranging assault on Israel by Hamas militants — has already claimed at least 2,600 lives on both sides. Lt. Col. Richard Hecht, an Israeli military spokesman, told reporters Thursday that forces “are preparing for a ground maneuver” should political leaders order one. A ground offensive in Gaza, whose 2.3 million residents are densely packed into a sliver of land only 40 kilometers (25 miles) long, would likely bring even higher casualties on both sides in brutal house-to-house fighting. As Israel pounds Gaza, Hamas fighters have fired thousands of rockets into Israel since their weekend assault. Militants in the territory are also holding an estimated 150 people taken hostage from Israel. Palestinians fleeing airstrikes could be seen running through the streets, carrying their belongings and looking for a safe place. Tens of thousands have crowded into U.N.-run schools while others are staying with relatives or even strangers who let them in. Lines formed outside bakeries and grocery stores during the few hours they dared open, as people tried to stock on food before shelves are emptied. On Wednesday, Gaza’s only power station ran out of fuel and shut down, leaving only lights powered by scattered private generators. A senior official with the International Committee of the Red Cross warned that the lack of electricity could cripple hospitals. “As Gaza loses power, hospitals lose power, putting newborns in incubators and elderly patients on oxygen at risk. Kidney dialysis stops, and X-rays can’t be taken,” said Fabrizio Carboni, ICRC’s regional director. “Without electricity, hospitals risk turning into morgues.” Israeli Energy Minister Israel Katz said nothing would be allowed into Gaza until the captives were released. “Not a single electricity switch will be flipped on, not a single faucet will be turned on, and not a single fuel truck will enter until the Israeli hostages are returned home,” he tweeted. After Hamas militants stormed into Israel on Saturday and massacred hundreds of people in their homes, on the streets and at an outdoor music festival, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed to “crush and destroy” the group, which has governed Gaza since 2007. “Every Hamas member is a dead man,” Netanyahu said in a televised address late Wednesday. The Israeli government is under intense public pressure to topple the militant group rather than continuing to try to bottle it up in Gaza after four previous conflicts ended with Hamas still firmly in charge of the territory. Israel has mobilised 360,000 reservists, massed additional forces near Gaza and evacuated tens of thousands of residents from nearby communities. Netanyahu now has the backing of a new war Cabinet that includes a long time opposition politician. The U.S. has also pledged unwavering support, and Secretary of State Antony Blinken arrived in Tel Aviv on Thursday to meet with Israeli leaders. He plans to meet Friday with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, whose authority is confined to the occupied West Bank, and Jordan’s King Abdullah II. Israel captured the West Bank, along with Gaza and east Jerusalem, in a 1967 war. The Palestinians want all three territories for their future state, but there have been no peace talks in over a decade. In Gaza, the Israeli military said overnight strikes targeted Hamas’ elite Nukhba forces, including command centers used by the fighters who attacked Israel on Saturday, and the home of a senior Hamas naval operative that it said was used to store unspecified weapons. Other airstrikes killed commanders from two smaller militant groups, according to media linked to those organizations. Right now we are focused on taking out their senior leadership,” Hecht, the military spokesman, said of Hamas. “Not only the military leadership, but also the governmental leadership, all the way up to (top Hamas leader Yehia) Sinwar.” The Hamas-run Interior Ministry said Israeli strikes demolished two multistory houses without warning, killing and wounding “a large number” of people, mainly civilians. Hamas has threatened to kill hostages if Israel strikes Palestinian civilians without warning. While Israel has insisted that it is giving notice of its strikes, it is employing a new tactic of leveling whole neighborhoods, rather than just individual buildings. And Israeli military briefings have emphasised the destruction wrought. Hecht said Israel was not “doing carpet bombing, though some people would like to see that.” He said targeting decisions were based on intelligence and civilians were warned. Even with the evacuation warnings, Palestinians say some are unable to escape or have nowhere to go, and that entire families have been crushed under rubble. Other times, strikes come with no notice, survivors say. “There was no warning or anything,” said Hashem Abu Manea, 58, who lost his 15-year-old daughter, Joanna, when a strike late Tuesday leveled his home in Gaza City. Meanwhile, the Palestinian Health Ministry said two Palestinians were killed in the West Bank on Thursday when Israeli settlers sprayed bullets at a funeral for three people killed in a settler rampage the day before. Footage showed Jewish settlers in their cars swerving into the funeral procession and cutting off the road before stopping and opening fire. Shock, grief and demands for vengeance against Hamas are running high in Israel since Saturday’s assault. Armed settlers have rampaged through West Bank villages and hurled stones at passing Palestinian cars, residents say. The Health Ministry says 28 Palestinians have been killed in the West Bank and two in Israeli-annexed east Jerusalem since Saturday. The U.N. said late Wednesday the number of people displaced by the airstrikes had soared 30% within 24 hours, to 339,000, two-thirds of them crowding into U.N. schools. Others sought shelter in the shrinking number of safe neighborhoods. The U.N. humanitarian office said Israeli strikes have leveled 1,000 homes since the retaliation began last Saturday, with another 560 housing units severely damaged and rendered uninhabitable. It said an Israeli cutoff has resulted in dire water shortages for over 650,000 people. Sewage systems have been destroyed, sending fetid wastewater into the streets. Egypt has engaged in intensive talks with Israel and the United States to allow the delivery of aid and fuel through its Rafah crossing point, which is closed after an airstrike hit nearby earlier this week. But it has pushed back against proposals to establish corridors out of Gaza, saying an an exodus of Palestinians would have grave consequences for their hopes of one day establishing an independent state. Egypt is also likely concerned about a potential influx of hundreds of thousands of displaced people. The death toll in Gaza rose to more than 1,350 killed, the Palestinian health ministry said. Bihar train accident | High-level inquiry ordered, many trains diverted as restoration works continue [The railways on October 12 ordered a high-level inquiry into the derailment of the Delhi-Kamakhya North East Express in Bihar’s Buxar district]( in which four persons were killed and several people injured, officials said. Twenty-three coaches of the train, on the way to Assam from Delhi, derailed near the Raghunathpur station around 9.53 p.m. on October 11, they said. “A high-level inquiry has been ordered to investigate the reason behind the incident,” East Central Railway’s Chief Public Relations Officer Birendra Kumar said in a statement. An ex-gratia of ₹10 lakh will be given to the next of kin of each deceased, and ₹50,000 will be given to the injured, he said. ECR general manager Tarun Prakash, who is in Raghunathpur to supervise the restoration works, told PTI-Video that the priority is to clear the tracks. “The number of casualties is four. The number of injured passengers is 40. The cause of derailment will be known only after a proper investigation. At present our priority is to clear the tracks. Until normal traffic is restored, trains running on the route will be diverted,” he said. However, a Railway Police Force (RPF) officer had on October 11 night said that at least 70 people were injured in the accident, and taken to local hospitals. On the other side, the statement issued by the ECR said that while five passengers were critically injured, 25 received minor injuries. Prakash said that the cause of the accident will be known only after the investigation is complete. Meanwhile, all passengers of the train bound for Kamakhya in Guwahati in Assam, who were in a position to undertake the onward journey, boarded a relief train in the early hours of Thursday, officials said. Cranes and equipment used in cutting through metal are being used for clearing the tracks, where lay a number of derailed coaches, some of which overturned, they said. The injured people were undergoing treatment at hospitals mostly in Buxar town and Ara, where the neighbouring Bhojpur district is headquartered, officials said. Ten injured passengers were taken to AIIMS-Patna, they added. “Ten patients have been admitted to the Trauma Center of AIIMS-Patna. Six of them had minor injuries,” its executive director doctor Gopal Krushna Pal told PTI, adding that the other four persons have fractures in various parts of their bodies. “No one required ventilator support. No one is in a life-threatening condition. The treatment of the four people who had fractures is going on very well,” he added. Union Minister Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who is the MP from Buxar, spoke to the director of AIIMS-Patna. India ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in Global Hunger Index [India ranks 111 out of a total of 125 countries in the Global Hunger Index (GHI) 2023]( with its progress against hunger nearly halted since 2015 reflecting a global trend. Afghanistan, Haiti and 12 sub-Saharan countries perform worse than India on the GHI. India’s ranking is based on a Global Hunger Index score of 28.7 on a 100-point scale where 0 is the best score (no hunger) and 100 is the worst. This categorises India’s severity of hunger as “serious”. The GHI score is based on a formula that combines four indicators that together capture the multi-dimensional nature of hunger and these include under-nourishment, child stunting, child wasting and child mortality. While India made significant strides between 2000 and 2015 with its score improving from 38.4 in 2000 to 35.5 in 2008 and 29.2 in 2015, over the past eight years it has advanced by only 0.5 points. The 2000, 2008 and 2015 GHI scores are the only data that can be used for valid comparisons over time. India’s performance mirrors a global trend. The 2023 GHI score for the world is 18.3, considered moderate. However, it is only one point below the world’s 2015 GHI score of 19.1. The share of people globally who are undernourished, which is one of the indicators used in the index, actually rose from 7.5% in 2017 to 9.2% in 2022, reaching about 735 million. Over the recent past, the government of India has contested India’s score in the GHI and called it an “attempt to tarnish the image” of the country. It has accused the publishers of using Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO) telephone-based opinion poll -- the Food Insecurity Experience Scale (FIES) -- which the GHI has categorically denied using. The GHI says that the undernourishment data the government objected to was in fact based on Food Balance sheet data from each country. South Asia and Africa South of the Sahara are the world regions with the highest hunger levels, with GHI scores of 27.0 each, indicating serious hunger. West Asia and North Africa is the region with the third-highest hunger level with a score of 11.9 indicating “moderate” hunger level. Latin American and the Caribbean is the only region in the world whose GHI scores have worsened between 2015 and 2023. East and Southeast Asia, dominated by populous China, has the second-lowest 2023 GHI score of any region in the report. China, for example, is among the top 20 countries that each have a GHI score of less than 5. The region with the lowest 2023 GHI score is Europe and Central Asia, whose score of 6.0 is considered “low”. According to the GHI 2023 report, the stagnation in the fight against global hunger is largely due “to the combined effects of overlapping crises, including the COVID-19 pandemic, the Russia-Ukraine war, economic stagnation, the impacts of climate change, and the intractable conflicts facing many countries of the world.” It adds that the combination of these crises have led to a cost of living crisis and exhausted the coping capacity of many countries. In Brief: Canadian Speaker skips G20 Parliamentary Speakers’ Summit Amid a diplomatic row, [Speaker of the Canadian Senate Raymonde Gagne has decided to skip the Presiding Officers’ Summit of Parliaments of G20 nations]( that began in New Delhi on Thursday. Gagne had earlier confirmed her presence at the Parliament-20 meeting chaired by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla. “The Canadian Speaker is not attending the Summit. Schedules keep changing,” Parliamentary sources said. Earlier, Birla had said he would raise “several issues” in his informal talks with the Speaker of the Canadian Senate. The P20 meeting got underway on Thursday with Parliamentarians of G20 nations participating in the Parliamentary Forum on LiFE (Lifestyle for Environment), a movement proposed by Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Centre upgrades security cover of EAM Jaishankar The [security cover of External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar has been upgraded from the ‘Y’ category to ‘Z’]( official sources said on Thursday. The Union home ministry has asked the Central Reserve Police Force (CRPF) to take the charge of his security, currently provided by the Delhi Police, they said. Jaishankar, 68, was being guarded by an armed team of the Delhi Police under the ‘Y’ category security cover. He will now be protected by the CRPF under the larger ‘Z’ category security cover which entails about 14-15 armed commandos moving with him round the clock in shifts across the country, the sources said. The CRPF’s VIP security cover has 176-odd protectees at present. Evening Wrap will return tomorrow. ADVERTISEMENT Today’s Top Picks [[2023 on course to be warmest year on record | Data] 2023 on course to be warmest year on record | Data]( [[Single by Divorce | Women Uninterrupted podcast - Season 4, Episode 4] Single by Divorce | Women Uninterrupted podcast - Season 4, Episode 4]( [[IMI 5.0 reaches children up to five years for the first time] IMI 5.0 reaches children up to five years for the first time]( [[Al-Qaeda hostage Stephen McGown on how he survived six years with his captors] Al-Qaeda hostage Stephen McGown on how he survived six years with his captors]( Copyright @ 2023, THG PUBLISHING PVT LTD. If you are facing any trouble in viewing this newsletter, please [try here]( Manage your newsletter subscription preferences [here]( If you do not wish to receive such emails [go here](