Introduction

Despite a significant increase in the per capita food production in India, hunger and malnutrition are still quite high. The COVID-19 pandemic is likely to have further worsened the situation of hunger and malnutrition, placing India at a high risk of missing the target of achieving the SDG 2.1 target of zero hunger by 2030. The need to achieve food security by providing balanced and adequate nutrition to all requires coordination and concerted efforts from a host of stakeholders. This book in its twelve chapters takes an integrated approach by examining diverse aspects of food and nutrition security through a multidisciplinary lens of Agricultural Economics, Nutrition, Crop Sciences, Anthropology, and Law, while being rooted in economics. The chapters reflect this diversity in disciplines in terms of the questions posed, the data sets used, and the methodologies followed. Starting from the evolution of policy response for hunger and nutrition security, the book covers aspects such as gender budgeting, dietary diversity, women’s empowerment, calorie intake norms, socio-legal aspects of the right to health, subjective wellbeing, bio-fortification, crop insurance, and food security linkages, the interdependence of public distribution system (for food security) and employment guarantee schemes, especially during COVID-19 pandemic, effects of dairy dietary supplements, and so on. The book arrives at a rich set of findings and policy recommendations for India towards achieving the SDG 2.1 target of zero hunger by 2030.