-Newsclick.in A large number of vacant Anganwadi posts and non-operationalisation of approved centres are in 5 states alone and are directly impacting nutrition of children and women. In reply to a question in the Rajya Sabha, Women and Child Development Minister Smriti Zubin Irani said that 1.93 lakh posts were lying vacant in Anganwadis across the country at various levels. Out of these 1.29 lakh posts lying vacant in five states alone...

-GaonConnection.com The Indian government is considering ‘mandatory’ food fortification in the country. Several health experts have written to FSSAI calling the decision ‘a blanket approach’ to meet the complexity of malnutrition in the country. Details here. At least 170 people and organisations, including medical experts and nutritionists, have today, on August 2, written a letter to Ashok Kumar Mishra, the assistant director of Food Fortification Resource Centre, department that regulates food under...

The pandemic's first wave had a devastating impact on the livelihoods of rural workers in Bihar (including the self-employed) last year, according to a survey based research, jointly done by economists from Centre for Development Economics and Sustainability at Monash University, Australia and the New Delhi-based Institute for Human Development. A recent press note issued by the authors of the study shows that almost 94.4 percent of the households participating...

-The Hindu A total of 9.27 lakh severely acute malnourished children between the age of six months and six years have been identified in the country till November 2020, the government told Parliament. Over 40% of such children were found in Uttar Pradesh alone. "As per ICDS-RRS (Rapid Reporting System) Portal, as on 30th November, 2020, 9,27,606 severely acute malnourished (SAM) children (6 months - 6 years) have been identified in the country,...

-Macroscan.com/ Livemint.com There is a common trope, fed especially to generations born after 1991, that economic progress and modernization in India really occurred only after ‘liberalizing’ economic reforms were introduced three decades ago. This is a travesty of the truth. Certainly, conditions for most Indians have improved since that watershed year. Per capita income went up more rapidly than before, life expectancy went up, infant and maternal mortality decreased, income poverty...