-The Economic Times It's hard to think of a cereal that is more intrinsic to Indian culture than rice. It journeys with us for a whole lifetime - with the first solid food a baby is traditionally fed during the annaprashan ceremony to sprinkling it over a deceased person's mouth during the last rites. A vast majority of the Indian population eats rice as its staple grain, similar to Asian countries...
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Deficient programme -Jyotsna Singh
-Down to Earth Centre wants to treat anaemia with iron tablets. Can pills substitute nutritious food? Eleven-year-old Indumati Katla, who lives in Wazirpur, Delhi, went to school on July 17. There, her class teacher asked her to gulp down a maroon tablet. Two hours later, she was in hospital recuperating from severe nausea, giddiness and fatigue. She was among the 200 government school students in Delhi who fell ill that day after...
More »A misnomer called food security -Charan Singh and Arvind Virmani
-The Indian Express The proposed bill makes false promises. The need is to directly address problems of drinking water availability, sanitation, maternal health and childcare The Food Security Bill (2013, FSB) promulgated recently by an ordinance is expected to be debated in Parliament soon. The intention behind the FSB is noble, to eradicate hunger from the country, but the means adopted need serious reconsideration. FSB, under the targeted public distribution system (TPDS),...
More »Much ado about little-TN Ninan
-The Business Standard Many myths surround the new 'food security' law Back in the 1980s, the government distributed an average of nearly 16 million tonnes of foodgrain each year through the public distribution system (PDS). The 1990s saw an increase in the PDS throughput to just over 17 million tonnes. The striking change came in the decade of the "noughties", which saw the annual figure climbing to around 20 million tonnes, then...
More »Jairam urges caution over Lancet series recommendations on nutrition -Kundan Pandey
-Down to Earth Rural development minister shares concerns of activists at launch of Lancet series; stresses community role in fight against malnutrition India needs to be careful when it comes to agriculture-based nutrition as it opens the door for advocacy for transgenic food, said Jairam Ramesh, Union rural development minister, at the launch of the Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition. Ramesh was the chief guest at the programme on June...
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