Among the world's Hungriest and Poorest - Incredible India

Dear All,
With respect to "crude statistics", I do tend to take alarmist global indices published by global think tanks on a whole range and variety of global issues, with a "pinch of salt".
The question still remains :
1. How do we respond to such "crude statistics"
2. What do we actually manage to do about these issues with the resources at our disposal.

There is no doubt that a country with 1.2 billion people has its politicial leaders pining and whining for the embrace and pats on the back, of the outgoing White House resident, backed by well funded Washington based policy think tanks, rather than evolving long term food security policies and development paradigms.
In the backdrop of the US Farm Bill 2007, continued and insistent EU and US farm subsidies, the arm twisting of developing economies by the diplomats and negotiators of the same countries and economic blocs, in global trade forums, so called respected think tanks which routinely spew out alarmist statistics have a habit of hijacking agendas for reasons best known to them.
In this, they do seek the support and mental attention of diaspora communities as well as of the Oxbridge / IMF / World Bank / Brussels trained economists who keep kicking the stirrups of Indian economy.
This routinely brings to my mind the statement of Leo Tolstoy - " I sit on a man's back, choking him and making him carry me, and yet assure myself and others that I am very sorry for him and wish to ease his lot by all possible means - except by getting off his back. "
At the same time, serious and more appropriate analysts like Devinder Sharma and P Sainath are continually sidelined and merely tolerated, in the cacaphony raised by these strategic policy think tanks with vested agendas.
Warm Regards,
Nagarjuna

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The Indian elite keep ranting about the economy's growth rate while the corporate papers (Hindustan Times, Times of India, Indian Express etc) get all excited about the bullish stock market that has crossed the 19,000-point mark.
But what about half the population grinding under poverty and malnutrition?

The Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute released its report "The World's Most Deprived: Characteristics and Causes of Extreme Poverty and Hunger" on 6th Nov 07. The Institute devised the global hunger index (GHI) as a measure of poverty & hunger in a country.
This report is the first of its kind to use household survey data to look at those living below the one-dollar-a- day line. The index is designed to capture three dimensions of hunger: lack of economic access to food, shortfalls in the nutritional status of children, and child mortality, which is largely attributable to malnutrition.

1) India ranks way down at 96 among 119 developing countries included in the report. Even Nepal is four notches higher at 92, Pakistan 88, Myanmar 68, Sri Lanka 69, China 47.
In contrast, Mauritius is among the top 20 of least hungry countries.

The report commented "The lack of improvement in India's GHI score between 1997 and 2003 despite continued growth is a cause for concern, since India's GHI still indicates alarming levels of hunger".

Across all developing regions of the world, the poorest households are most often located in remote rural areas with limited access to education, roads, and health services and members of these households often face exclusion due to their ethnicity, gender or disability.
Nagarjuna has interest in Food Policy issues and may like to comment further.

2) While child malnutrition has reduced, a separate study (see www.Indiatogether. org) finds that 1 in 2 Indian rural children under 3 is hungry.
3) And nearly 150,000 Indian farmers committed suicide in the period 1997- 2005, official data show. While farm suicides have occurred in many States, nearly two thirds of these deaths are concentrated in five States where just a third of the country's population lives. (See P Sainath, ZNet www.zmag.org, 12 Nov 07).

Two more recent statistics:
4) INDIA also leads the world in the number of women dying in childbirth - 117,000 in 2005.
This means a maternal mortality ratio of 450 deaths per 100,000 live births. The Pakistan figure is 320, Sri Lanka 58 and China 45 (one tenth of India's) [R Hensman, 19 Nov 07 www.countercurrents .org

5) Times of India, 20 Nov 07 reported that India has the largest number of illiterates in the world.
It ranks 126th out of 177 countries in the Human Development Index (UNDP 2006)

Eddie

Mr Non Profit - Clive James

Have you heard of Mr Clive James ? Or maybe Shri Clive James Ji ?
Well maybe the farmers in India have not, but Indian agricultural scientists surely have.
Can you believe that he is a leading agricultural researcher, and the Chairman of a "non profit", Cornell University, New York based, international network, with centres in Kenya and Philippines ?
Did I say non profit ? International ? Network ? Leading ? Agricultural ? Researcher ? Did I say Kenya ? Did I say Philippines ?

I am sure you are feeling dizzy .... Maybe the fault lies with you then. Pop in some organic biotech pills. Maybe you are getting too old. Maybe you have multiple Vitamin Deficiencies ? Snap Out of your mental sluggishness. Listen to what Mr Non Profit Clive James of Cornell University has to tell us.

Maybe Mr Non Profit Clive James of Cornell University is afterall,"the wizard" we have all been waiting for all these years, as we struggled with our collective poverty, backwardness, lack of self esteem, and mental sluggishness.

Well Shri Clive James will be very happy if you sample some organic biotech pills. He is also asking you to join in the celebrations that now India's biotech hectares exceed that of China - India has 3.8 million biotech hectares compared to China's 3.5 million hectares.
Evidently, some friends in New Delhi and some desi babus and mantri ji's, have been keeping very very busy.

It also transpires that India is to rollout a network of national laboratories for biotech research and is committing in good faith an investment of Rs 40 crores, with the non profit guidance of Shri Clive James Ji and US Agency of International Development USAID.
I am really sorry if I keep repeating this word called "network", but what to do, Shri Clive James Ji also keeps using this very often. I sometimes tend to lose count of the number of times the words millions and the words, network are used.
Afterall, as poor illiterate Indian, what do I know of networks and millions ? But I do tend to feel happy and proud, when I use these words. It makes me feel nice and important, learned. Somewhat like a scientist or a policy planner.

And then, even though I have no formal training as an Indian or global agricultural scientist, with a footprint in Kenya and Philippines, the "desi gawar" in me, feels very happy when I use words like millions - networks - institutes - universities - experts - scientists - laboratories - research.
And so I do tend to adopt a few words from Shri Clive James speeches as if they are my own. What to do, I am a desi gawar. I like to feel important, as when the local constable in the local thana, salutes me, and also when a leading non profit agricultural American scientist, out of his philanthropic love and concern, for the malnourished, vitamins starved, natives from the backwaters of Indian villages, is explaining some technical point to me, very earnestly, with full passion.
Mungeree Lal ke haseen sapne ...

Clever Master Weavers

Indian farming is in a mess. Indian farmers are in a greater mess. Indian farmers are running around like the Emperor without clothes, wishing for the clever master weavers to stitch for them, clothes of that fantastic material, that looks so fashionable as to be in fact invisible, but at the same time, is terribly expensive.

Sustainable farming in India, is a thing of the past.
Indian government, agriculture, commerce, finance ministries, corporate interests, IMF, World Bank, global trade blocs and local, home grown Indian agricultural scientists, have taken over the right to dictate to the Indian farmer, what he should be doing to get out of the royal mess he finds himself in.

Maybe it is time for these master weavers to take over all land from Indian farmers and show us how farming should be done. Indian farmers are willing to go on a Five Year Leave to Switzerland, as they leave their lands in the custody of these master weavers to show the ideal and perfect farming methods, technologies and practices.