Hunger index: Even Nepal beats India

India ranks way down at 96 among 119 developing countries included in the Global Hunger Index.

This rank is well below all its neighbours, barring Bangladesh, and falls in the category in which the hunger situation is deemed “alarming”.

Notably, this index reveals that while India did fairly well in combating hunger between 1992 and 1997, there has been virtually no improvement in this field in the subsequent period, between 1997 and 2003. While India’s hunger index score dropped from 32.80 points (extremely alarming category) in 1992 to 25.73 points (alarming category) in 1997, it has been static between 1997 and 2003.

Reducing hunger and poverty (less than a dollar line) by half by 2015 is among the Millennium Development Goals adopted by 189 member states of the United Nations in September 2000.

As the half-way mark to the target date of 2015 has already approached, there have been doubts whether these goals would be reached or not. The “business as usual” approach will simply not be sufficient to meet this pledge, the report maintains.

Source: http://www.rediff.com/money/2007/nov/12india.htm

Thought for the day:

Won’t we need an extension of our erstwhile Green Revolution Program? Was it really a success? If yes, then why india has lowest yields per hectare in the entire world?