Booming nation, and yet millions still go hungry

INDIA has a booming economy and growing political clout but 200 million of its people still go to bed hungry each night.
More than a third of India's states have alarming levels of hunger according to the Global Hunger Index, released by the International Food Policy Research Institute and the aid agencies Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide.
India ranked 66 out of 88 countries in the index. China, a country to which India is sometimes compared, was 15th.
"Despite years of robust economic growth, India scored worse than nearly 25 sub-Saharan African countries and all of South Asia, except Bangladesh," the report says. Almost a fifth of the population was estimated to be "food insecure".
Twelve of the 17 Indian states included in the study fell into the "alarming" category and the northern state of Madhya Pradesh, was rated has having an "extremely alarming" hunger problem. Madhya Pradesh ranked alongside Chad and Ethiopia on the Hunger Index.
http://www.smh.com.au/news/world/booming-nation-and-yet-millions-still-go-hungry/2008/10/15/1223750129914