-Observer Researcher Foundation In 2015, the United Nations agreed to end hunger in all forms by 2030. While India has committed itself as a stakeholder in the 2030 agenda for development, its own record in reducing hunger has been less than satisfactory. Latest data from the National Family Health Survey-4 show an improvement in nutritional indicators of children under-five. However, there are huge differences across states and social groups. Nutrition should...

-DNA   Jaipur: Rajasthan government has doubled the number of employment days for tribals in Udaipur and Baran districts under the MNERGA (Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Gurantee Act) in a year. This would take the number of working days from the present mandatory 100 days to 200 days. This increase would provide guaranteed six months of employment to the tribals. The tribes that would benefit from this would be Saharia and Kharua...

-The Hindu Fifty years since the Green Revolution, the architect of the reform highlights the crisis facing Indian agriculture today It is 11 years since agronomist M.S. Swaminathan handed over his recommendations for improving the state of agriculture in India to the former United Progressive Alliance government, at the height of the Vidarbha farmer suicides crisis, but they are still to be implemented. To address the agrarian crisis and farmers’ unrest across...

-Hindustan Times/ IndiaSpend A two-year-old project in Rajasthan used an unusual strategy to break this pattern among poor tribal communities. Instead of simply increasing their food supply and access — the standard approach for dealing with malnutrition — it attempted to break the tradition of prioritising men’s needs first. When the women of this southwestern Rajasthan village sat down to eat, it was usually after the rest of the family had finished...

-The Hindu The issue of food wastage must be fully understood, so that an effective strategy can be drawn up When Prime Minister Narendra Modi brought up the issue of food wastage on his ‘Mann Ki Baat’ programme about two months ago, he endorsed a valid point when he asked people not to waste food. Though he raised an extremely critical issue of national importance, he could also have used the occasion...