Living with hunger

Ash in the Belly is a penetrating account of men, women and children living with hunger, illuminated by their courage in trying to cope and survive. It is also an investigation into the political economy of hunger, whereby one in every two children is malnourished, despite the creation of wealth and economic growth.

Unsafe water stunting growth of Indian children: report

Forty five per cent of India's children are stunted and 600,000 children under five die each year, largely because of inadequate water supply and poor sanitation, reads a report by UNICEF and Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO). The report, Water in India: Situation and Prospects, is the first cross-sectoral assessment of the state of water resources in the country.

Gut microbes can cause severe malnutrition

A study of young twins in Malawi in south eastern Africa reveals that simple food intake will not improve the health of some of the world’s malnourished children. Their health depends more on the kind of microbes that inhabit their guts, the study shows. Understanding the role of the gut microbiota in under-nutrition could help devise new ecologically inspired strategies for correcting this problem.

How the state fails its little ones

High BP, tobacco are top killers

DISEASE patterns are changing world over. Deaths from infectious diseases, poor nutrition and maternal and child illnesses, which used to be the key global killers two decades ago, are down. More people today die of non-communicable diseases such as high blood pressure and due to tobacco and alcohol consumption. This is one of the key findings of a study on the global burden of disease, published in The Lancet on December 13, 2012.

Food basket is shrinking

The beauty & beast of malnutrition

Lack of governance, not figure-conscious girls, behind undernourished Gujarat

Pitfalls of a uniform food regime

AS SEVERE drought sweeps parts of India, Russia and the US, fanning fears of a repeat of the 2007-2008 food crisis, attention has shifted to local foodgrains, vegetables and shrinking food diversity.

'South Asia, Africa show poor progress towards MDGs'

Maternal deaths have halved and child deaths have decreased significantly between 1990 and 2010. But countries in South Asia and Africa have shown poor progress in saving their mothers and new born children, says a report put together by WHO, UNICEF and academics. 

Liberal politics of Economic Survey 2011-12

During the last financial year there were talks of the Indian economy finally decoupling from agriculture thus monsoon. The Economic Survey of 2011-12 disagrees with that. The survey has re-emphasised that whatever economic growth happened in the last fiscal it was due to agricultural growth. India recorded the lowest economic growth in 2011-12 since 2003 (2008-9 being the exception). However this growth rate was possible due to agricultural growth.