-The Hindu India must convert its young population to a competitive advantage, and nutrition and health are foundational to that outcome. The “Global Nutrition Report 2016” once again demonstrates India’s slow overall progress in addressing chronic malnutrition, manifest in stunting (low weight for age), wasting (low weight for height), micronutrient deficiencies and over-weight. Our track record in reducing the proportion of undernourished children over the past decade has been modest at best,...

-The Hindu India needs to formulate adaptation strategies to global warming at the State level and demonstrate if and how these could be meaningful for the country as a whole Kicking off to a warm start, the first few months of 2016 were close to 1.5° Celsius higher than average global temperatures for at least 10,000 years prior to the 19th century. At the Paris Conference of Parties (COP-21) last December, world...

-The Indian Express Agriculture Ministry’s harvest estimates don’t square with drought conditions in several cases, raise serious questions of credibility. We have had two consecutive drought years, yet India’s milk production, according to the Agriculture Ministry, has risen from 137.69 million tonnes (mt) in 2013-14 to 146.31 mt in 2014-15 and 160.35 mt in 2015-16. Never before has the country’s milk output grown at these rates — that too, in the face...

-Bloomberg.com   Millionaire farmers are benefiting from measures intended to help poor farmers.   Stuffed animal heads adorn the walls of Kunwar Vikram Jeet Singh’s mansion on the outskirts of Delhi, and he also owns a three-bedroom apartment in a gated condominium in the city. His children go to one of India’s most exclusive private schools. Yet Singh doesn’t pay income tax because he’s a farmer. Singh is one of thousands of rich landowners who...

-The Financial Express Persistence of high food inflation can harden the monetary policy stance and make fiscal choices difficult Food inflation increased to 7.9% in May 2016 as against 4.23% in April. This sudden spurt in food inflation is attributed to vegetable prices, followed by pulses and sugar. Is this a short-term spike or will it be a persistent one? If it is going to be a persistent one with pass-through effects,...