India's Malnutrition Problem

I have stated before that one of the most fascinating self-executing experiments in economic development is that between India and China. Both countries have had economic growth rates that are well above the global norms and are large countries with sizable populations. Indeed, I have stated that India's ingenuity, added to its long experience with democratic, if chaotic government may give it an advantage over China in the long term.

Having stated that bold wager, I still have to concede that some facts about this fascinating country provide reasons for self-doubt. Somini Sengupta, writing in the NYT here, reports a set of strange facts regarding India's human development conditions. One of those that i have been aware of is that India has the largest number of malnourished people in the whole world. The story highlights the far more subtle problem of child malnutrition and the fact that the subsidy programme is poorly designed and ill-targetted.

While I concede that development is essentially a difficult slog and a chaotic process, it is still a paradox that a country that has a high tech software industry is incapable of designing an acceptable subsidy programme.