-The Business Standard Report says child undernourishment fell 9.1 percentage points from FY06 to FY14; exclusive breastfeeding data trend shows 2025 target well in line India's percentage of children whose growth is stunted due to undernourishment showed a 9.1 percentage point decline between 2005-06 and 2013-14, the period when the Manmohan Singh-led government was in power, a new World Bank report on nutrition in India says. The report, issued on Thursday, based its...

-Livemint The statistics showed that the proportion of underweight children had fallen 12.8 percentage points since 2005 to 30.7% In its latest Global Hunger Index report released last month, the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) published new statistics on India's child malnutrition rates, which showed a dramatic decline in the proportion of underweight children. The statistics, based on a survey conducted by the ministry of women and child development and the...

-The Business Standard Wholesale prices of edible oils have risen 40% since Oct 15; pulses and wheat have surged 4.62% and 8.33%, respectively These could still be early signs, but it appears the breather on food inflation that India has been enjoying for some time is going to end. Following a sharp reduction in production estimates, prices of key agricultural commodities have risen over the past three weeks. According to data from the...

-The Times of India Jagdish Bhagwati and Arvind Panagariya, hereafter BP, have argued for phasing out the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act in favour of cash transfers ("Rural Inefficiency Act", ToI, 23 October). It's surprising-and amusing-that two eminent economists have chosen to make a case based on prior beliefs and some sophomoric wordplay ('mis'leading economists), rather than on the available evidence. A survey by one of us of the empirical literature...

-The Times of India BHUBANESWAR: With high price of potato continuing to hit consumers hard, the state government has started taking several initiatives to tackle the crisis and increase production. A meeting, chaired by chief secretary G C Pati on Wednesday, chalked out strategies to create a buffer stock of 4 lakh quintal of potato to meet crisis situation. He attributed high price of potato to short supply from West Bengal. Potato is...