Food insecurity worsened around the world in 2023, with about 282 million people suffering from acute hunger due to conflicts, particularly in Gaza and Sudan, according to this report by the United Nations agencies and development groups. According to the latest Global Report on Food Crises (GRFC), nearly 282 million …
SC Asks Addl Solicitor General To File Reply By Friday New Delhi: The health and women and child development ministries have refused to give an affidavit to the Supreme Court on how many children die of hunger in India every year. UNICEF says 50% of all the deaths of children …
The recent move of Ann Veneman, former executive director of Unicef, to Nestle Board has left nutrition campaign groups worried. While Unicef supports breastfeeding, Nestle, the food and drinks giant, undermines it. Before she joined Nestle Board on April 13, nutrition advocacy groups International Baby Food Action Network (IBFAN) and …
Balancing the conflicting interest of farmers, intermediaries and consumers is a tightrope walk for the Indian government even when there is price tranquility. This balancing exercise has become nightmarish in recent years with food inflation showing persistency and turbulence. These developments prompted the Cabinet Secretary to constitute an inter-ministerial group …
Despite a dalit woman as chief minister in Uttar Pradesh, a majority of children in dalit families continue to remain undernourished. A survey conducted by CRY (Child Rights and You), released on Thursday, shows that 70 per cent of children in dalit families suffer from malnutrition. The survey was conducted …
Citing cases of scores of children who are fighting undernourishment, non-government organisation Child Rights and You (CRY) and its partners on Thursday claimed that preventable malnourishment is still prevalent across the country despite scheme and plans implemented by the government. Statistics collected from Delhi, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan …
This paper reviews the literature on health in the informal settlements (and “slums”) that now house a substantial proportion of the urban population in Africa, Asia and Latin America. Although this highlights some important gaps in research, available studies do suggest that urban health inequalities usually begin at birth, are …
We conducted a cross-sectional study among 188 tribal children aged 6-59 months using two-stage sampling in Bankura-I Block of Bankura district, West Bengal, India, to assess their nutritional status and its relation with household food security. Weight and height/length were measured and analyzed as per new WHO Growth Standards. Mothers …
Decline in malnutrition levels has been dismal since the 1990s. We ascertained decadal trend in childhood nutritional status between 1997 and 2007 in Chandigarh, India and assessed impact of Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS) on childhood undernutrition. A total of 803 under-five children, 547 children between 12-23 months age, and …
The International Policy Centre for Inclusive Growth presents a comparative study of the food-security policy agendas in India, Brazil and South Africa. The aim of this paper is to identify and examine critical issues and good practices in order to reveal relevant points for knowledge sharing among the three countries. …
Just three years after the 2007-08 food crisis, the food security of poor people and vulnerable groups, especially women and children, is under threat as the prices of basic food items skyrocket. Expanding biofuel production, rising oil prices, U.S. dollar depreciation, export restrictions, and panic purchasing are again driving up …
The National Advisory Council has given its final proposals on the proposed National Food Security Act. A government-appointed committee (the Rangarajan Committee) has also given its response to these proposals. Both these proposals agree on the desirability of a universal nfsa but finally propose targeting at the poor as defined …
Unless more sustainable water resource management practices are adopted by companies and individuals, almost half of the global economy - and more than half of the world's population - will be exposed to severe water scarcity by 2050. These are the results of an analysis conducted by Veolia Water and …
India's rapid economic growth, after the initiation of market-oriented reforms two decades ago, has been the subject of considerable international attention. However, this accelerated economic growth has not been matched by marked improvements in many of the key indicators of health. Not only are the rates of infant and maternal …
INDIA will soon be the first country to commercially cultivate biofortified pearl millet, or bajra. The crop has been biofortified to improve its iron and zinc nutrients, and will be released in 2012 by HarvestPlus, a global alliance of research and implementing agencies. To be distributed in Rajasthan, Maharashtra, Gujarat …
What is biofortification of crops? Biofortification is a process where plant breeders explore crop genetic diversity in seed banks and create a crop that is rich in specific micronutrients. There are two ways to biofortify crops—conventional plant breeding and transgenic methods.How do you decide the amount of nutrient to be …
