-The Hindu That one-third of the food produced annually for human consumption is wasted is in itself unconscionable in a world where 870 million, or one in eight people, go hungry every day. A United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation report now says that this high volume of wastage that occurs right through the food supply chain exerts an adverse impact on land, water, biodiversity and climate change. This impact...

-Down to Earth 'Only nine of 74 nations where most under five deaths occur can achieve goal of 20 deaths per 1,000 live births if current trends continue' In June 2012, at a global meeting convened by UNICEF and the governments of Ethiopia, India, and the US, a target 20 or fewer deaths (per 1,000 live births) among children under five was proposed to be achieved by all countries by 2035. International...

-Down to Earth World Bank report says heart diseases have replaced TB and sepsis as two of the five leading causes of deaths between 1990 and 2010 Reasons for premature deaths in India have seen a significant shift over the past two decades. In 1990, the top five reasons were communicable diseases. In 2010, two of the top five reasons for premature deaths are non-communicable diseases (NCDs). Diet-related risks are the leading...

-The Hindu The story today is a far cry from the 1960s, when we led the developing countries' fight against the disease Tuberculosis is very much in the news, but for all the wrong reasons - a shortage of drugs; increasing multi-drug and extensive drug resistance (MDR, XDR), making treatment both cumbersome and expensive; total drug resistance (TDR) as a veritable death warrant; popularly used serological tests for diagnosis being declared worse...

-Down to Earth Is India ready to protect itself from the onslaught of food and nutrition industry? India is shouldering a huge burden of malnutrition-in the absence of government figures, a dipstick survey by non-profit HUNGaMA in 2012 suggests that 59 per cent of the country's children could have stunted growth and 42 per cent could be underweight. While the government is still struggling to tackle the problem, the food and nutrition...