India is lagging in its effort to reach United Nations goals to reduce poverty and improve health and sanitation, but has shown significant progress boosting education, treating AIDS and addressing environmental concerns, a U.N. official said. “We are in a race against time with just three years left” to achieve Millennium Development Goals, Noeleen Heyzer, executive secretary of the U.N. Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific, said last...

After much debate, the Cabinet cleared the food security bill. Will it really ensure food for every Indian? THE Lokpal Bill debate may have ended in a fiasco but 2011 ended on a positive note for the Congress-led UPA government on another count. Its pet project, the National Food Security Bill (NFSB), was cleared by the Union Cabinet and introduced in Parliament. The bill seeks to address widespread hunger in the...

There is a rush to cash in on micronutrient deficiency in India through fortification of food Andhra Pradesh Foods, a state government enterprise, is ramping up its fortified food production capacity. It provides ready-to-eat and ready-to-cook foods like upma mix, sweet porridge and khichdi mix, fortified with iron, zinc and other vitamins, to infants and pregnant and lactating women under the Centre’s Integrated Child Development Scheme (ICDS). The effort to double its...

-The Hindu Business Line The Tamil Nadu Government has urged the Centre to expedite financial assistance for its Rs 700 crore scheme to computerise the PDS with a view to increase efficiencies of operation. It also pleaded with the Centre to exempt the State from the purview of the proposed Food Security law and reconsider its decision to implement the Targetted Public Distribution System. According to a copy of the speech by the...

-BBC   Half a billion children could grow up physically and mentally stunted over the next 15 years because they do not have enough to eat, the charity Save the Children says in a new report. It says much more needs to be done to tackle malnutrition in the world's poorest countries. The charity found that many families could not afford meat, milk or vegetables. The survey covered families in India, Bangladesh, Peru, Pakistan and...