Food security in India
Food security refers to ensuring adequate food supply to people, especially those who are deprived of basic nutrition. Food security has been a major concern in India. According to UN-India, there are nearly 195 million undernourished people in India, which is a quarter of the world's hunger burden. Also, roughly 43% of children in India are chronically undernourished. India ranks 71 out of 113 major countries in terms of food security index 2020. Though the available nutritional standard is 100% of the requirement, India lags far behind in terms of quality protein intake at  20% which needs to be tackled by making available protein-rich food products such as soybeans, lentils, meat, eggs, dairy, etc. at affordable prices. The Human Rights Measurement Initiative finds that India is doing 56.8% of what should be possible at its level of income for the right to food. Laws. In order to provide the Right to food to every citizen of the country, the Parliament of India, enacted a legislation in 2013 known as the National Food Security Act, 2013. Also called as the Right to Food Act, this Act seeks to provide subsidized food grains to approximately  two thirds of India's 1.33 billion population. It was signed into law on 10 September 2013, retroactive to 5 July 2013. Challenges for India. Food availability is not that reliable in India. The challenge to produce more and more for the growing population is becoming increasingly hard for a country of its size and economic growth. Since the land in India is a shrinking resource for agriculture, the production rate for agriculture needs to be higher per unit of land and irrigation water. Over 60% of the Indian population depend on agriculture for their daily meals. India produces around  100 million tonnes of rice every year. Accessing food in India can be considered to be more difficult than in Australia. While there might be enough food for the whole population of India, many families and especially children in India don't have access to food because of financial problems. Thus, this is the cause of millions of malnourished children around India. The cultural knowledge in India allows them to have a very nutritional and balanced diet. Nearly the whole of the Indian population has rice at least once a day which allows them to have carbohydrates in their system . Since India is most commonly known for producing and exporting rice to other countries, their lifestyle will be mainly dominated by rice. Technological solutions. India needs to concentrate on methods to improve the availability and affordability of protein rich food products using the latest environmental friendly technology without the need of additional land and water. Biogas or natural gas or methane produced from farm/agro/crop/domestic waste can also be used in addition to mined natural gas for producing protein rich cattle/fish/poultry/pet animal feed economically by cultivating Methylococcus capsulatus bacteria culture in a decentralized manner near  to the rural/consumption areas with tiny land and water foot print. Further reading. Ramaswamy, S. (2017). Food Security in India. India: MJP Publishers.