Guns or Ghee

Of the 118 countries on the global hunger index, India ranks 98th, with 214 million people going hungry. Madhya Pradesh, the second largest state in India and the one that contains the greatest concentration of hungry people in the country. The Indian State Hunger Index released in 2008 placed Madhya Pradesh in the "extremely alarming" hunger category. In 1993-94, 44.6% of people were living at below the poverty line in Madhya Pradesh. A survey by a local NGO revealed 83% of children are undernourished and most families go to bed on an empty stomach.

Biraj Patnaik, national adviser to the Right to Food campaign, says: "India has the highest burden of child malnutrition in the world. You find that almost a third of Indian babies are born with low birth weight and this is a very high number. Lack of access to food, no access to drinking water, lack of sanitation facilities and gender inequity – these all contribute to child malnutrition, which again stems from hunger and poverty."

According to the development economist Jean Dreze, "It is well known that if a child is undernourished by age three, it is very difficult to repair the damage after that. Yet most infants and young children continue to be exposed to undernutrition and remain beyond the reach of public intervention."

The World Bank recently warned that 60% of the country's food subsidies do not reach the poor

In 2005-06, an average of 11.9kg of food grain was consumed per month, per family member, at a cost of 106 rupees ($2.38). In 2006-07, that figure came down to 11.69kg, with the cost of food increasing to 115 rupees ($2.58). India produces around 600 million tonnes of fruit and vegetables out of which 25% to 30% is wasted due to inadequate logistical support.

The National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGA), which came into being in 2005. The scheme ensures rural people livelihood security by guaranteeing them 100 days of work every year. Under the terms of NREGA, every rural Indian has the right to work within 15 days of requesting it and without having to travel more than three miles outside their village. Dreze, one of the chief architects of the programme, says "NREGA is a pro-worker law implemented by an anti-worker system. One manifestation of this is the systematic resistance of the administration to any sort of accountability. All the accountability provisions - unemployment allowance, compensation for delayed payments, penalty clauses - have been sidelined. This defeats the purpose of the act."

India has become the world's largest importer of arms, accounting for 9 per cent of all global purchases. A report stated its annual defence budget stands at a record £22.3bn – an 11 per cent rise over the previous year – more than double the amount that India spends on education and health combined.

India's defence orders from US companies have reached a cumulative value of over $8 billion in the last decade. India has in the last decade bought eight P-8 Poseidon maritime patrol aircraft for $2.1 billion and is expected to order four more planes for its navy, six C-130J transporters for $1.2 billion, and 10 C-17 heavy lift cargo planes for $4.1 billion along with their weapon suites. This would be apart from buying an old landing pontoon dock warship for amphibious operations and naming it INS Jalashwa -- and 140 M777 artillery guns. US firms are also in competition for India's requirement for 22 attack helicopters, 15 heavy lift cargo helicopters. The US on Tuesday pitched for more military sales to India.

Over the last decade, French defence vendors have bagged, or are the leading contenders to win a number lucrative Indian arms contracts, including the $11-billion medium, multi-role combat aircraft tender for 126 aircrafts for the Indian Air Force, and the estimated $2.4-billion Mirage-2000 upgrade.