K N Arun/Newindpress

Chennai, Oct 27: Neither the hullabaloo created over NDA's 'India Shining' campaign nor the claims by the UPA government about reaching out to the Aam admi seem to reflect the eradication of malnutrition and rural poverty in the country, according to separate reports by two international agencies.

Despite making considerable progress in agricultural production in the 1970s through the 1990s, the country languishes at the 94th spot among 118 other countries in terms of Global Hunger Index, with only Bangladesh (rank 103), among its Asian neighbour, ranking below it.

The index, evolved by International Food Policy Research Institute, is based on undernourished population, underweight children and under-five mortality rate.

Based on this index, India which had a score of 33.73 in 1990, had managed to reduce it to 25.73 in 1997, remaining static till 2003. The next four years has seen only a marginal progress with the score dropping to 25.03 in 2007. This still falls far short of the target of 16.18 to be achieved by 2015.

The target is based on the hunger related indices of Millenium Development Goals. In fact, the report shows that Ethiopia, which ranks below India has managed hunger better, with its GHI dropping from 36.70 in 2003 to 33.67 in 2007, though without any change in the ranking.

▪ India ranks 94 among 118 in GHI

▪ India's GHI falls short of its 2015 target

▪ 20% of Indian population undernourished

▪ 46.6% of U-5 children undernourished

▪ India's foodgrain production lowest

▪ U-5 mortality rate high at 8.5%