-The Hindu How rich your State was the year you were born is a direct predictor of how tall you will grow, new research shows. But the relationship between a State's income and the height of its residents is growing weaker over time, possibly as a result of inequality within States. Faster growing States will not necessarily get healthier and taller at an equally fast rate, especially if their inequality...

-The Hindu R.P. Gupta, Principal Secretary to Government of Gujarat, Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Department, writes: "In Gujarat, PDS is exclusionary, leaky, getting worse" (August 17), your Correspondent Rukmini S., mainly focuses on the alleged weakness of the Gujarat Public Distribution System based on old data. It is clear that she has not countered any of the points raised by the Chief Minister of Gujarat. The article mentions some analysis of...

-The Hindu Many States have been improving their Public Distribution System over the last five years On Tuesday, Gujarat Chief Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh criticising the National Food Security Bill (NFSB) for not being expansive enough. What Mr. Modi omitted to mention is that the same complaint could be made of the existing Public Distribution System (PDS) in his own state. The most significant difference between the PDS...

The declining trend in food price inflation globally may not hold true for inflationary trends faced domestically due to a weakening Indian Rupee vis-a-vis the US Dollar. The recently released FAO Food Price Index (nominal) has shown a declining trend in July for the third consecutive month owing to lower international prices for grains, soy & palm oil, meat, dairy and sugar. (See links below) Based on FAO Food Price...

-The Hindu Younger daughters-in-law in rural families have shorter children on average, says research There is new evidence that the unequal social status of women could play a significant - and as yet ignored - role in explaining India's "inexplicably" high under-nutrition levels. For its per capita income, India has stubbornly higher than expected levels of stunting and under-weight among children and adults - the so-called "Asian enigma" which, with countries like...