India is the favorite "whipping boy" for many critics who find the country as a laggard in every sphere of human activity. Sending satellites into space, conducting nuclear bomb tests or firing nuclear capable missiles does not improve the quality of life for its citizens is borne out by the most recent "hunger index" ranking, considered a realistic scale to compare different countries on their developmental achievements.
"Despite this, no Indian state falls in the low or moderate hunger bracket, as defined by the Global Hunger Index. The India State Hunger Index, which takes into account 17 states, reveals that even Punjab is below countries such as Nicaragua, Honduras, Armenia, Algeria. The index was prepared by the International Food Policy Research Institute.Relatively better off states such as Haryana, Tamil Nadu and West Bengal fall in the "alarming" category with hunger indices between 20.0 and 29.9. Punjab, India's granary, falls in the "serious" category with an index between 10.0 and 19.9, and Madhya Pradesh comes in the precarious bracket of "extremely alarming" with an index of over 30. The index captures three interlinked dimensions of hunger — proportion of population not consuming adequate calories, proportion of children dying before five years and proportion of underweight children. India's CMR (child mortality rate) is 72 per 1,000, and over 80 million of its children are malnourished".
Though these figures may shame any Indian citizen, the rulers in the country do not seem to be too much concerned as evidenced by no tangible improvements noticed despite massive investments in many areas, most of which can be taken as resources wasted. Probably wide scale corruption and national development cannot go "hand in hand" and the relationship is inversely proportional. Unless there is a "moral revival", the country will chug along with low perceptible growth year after year, to be counted as an "also ran" global player!
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