If the malnourished in India formed a country, it would be the world's fifth largest — almost the size of Indonesia. According to Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO), 237.7 million Indians are currently undernourished (up from 224.6 million in 2008). And it is far worse if we use the minimal calorie intake norms accepted officially in India. By those counts (2200 rural/2100 urban), the number of Indians who cannot afford...

The lone Indian activist on the 2011 TIME magazine’s 100 most influential people in the world, Aruna Roy has been more successful than most,  when it comes to getting the government’s attention. The Chennai-born former bureaucrat who was an instrumental force behind the revolutionary Right to Information Act has also been credited by the government for “incorporating strong citizen entitlements” in the ambitious National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA). A constant...

-The Hindu   Has addressed issues of sex selection, infant-maternal mortality, child health A Dalit woman sarpanch elected to an unreserved seat in Bikaner district of Rajasthan has successfully brought gender issues to the mainstream development discourse with the help of a Jaipur-based advocacy group. She has addressed the crucial subjects of sex selection, infant and maternal mortality and reproductive and child health by focusing on gender fostering. Tara Devi, elected as Sarpanch of...

The government's decision to set aside a 20 per cent quota for SC/ST vendors in its purchases, if accepted by every sector on a wider scale, has the potential to makegrowth pro-poor and inclusive. The Central government has finally announced a policy reserving 20 per cent of its purchases for micro and small enterprises run by entrepreneurs belonging to the Scheduled Castes and the Scheduled Tribes. The new procurement policy will...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...