Two-thirds of the world’s undernourished people live in India and six other countries in Asia and Africa, according to the Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) of the United Nations.
The six other countries are China, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Indonesia (all in Asia) and Ethiopia and the Democratic Republic of the Congo in the African continent.
The FAO shared the findings of the study at a press conference in Rome on Tuesday, ahead of the September 20-22 UN conference in New York which will discuss the progress of achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs).
Two other UN agencies, the World Food Programme (WFP) and the International Fund for Agricultural Development, work with the FAO to fight global hunger.
The latest FAO figures showed that most of the world’s hungry live in developing countries where they account for 16 per cent of the population. The region with the greatest number of hungry people remains Asia and the Pacific.
India, which accounts for 50 per cent of the world’s hungry and where over 46 per cent of the children are undernourished, has shown mixed results in making progress on meeting the MDG targets.
***
Krishna may meet Qureshi at UNGA
New Delhi : External affairs Minister S.M. Krishna will leave early on Sunday morning for the US to attend United Nations General Assembly during which a chance meeting with his Pakistani counterpart S.M. Qureshi is not ruled out.
While ruling out a “structured bilateral meeting” between Mr Krishna and Mr Qureshi, sources here maintained the two leaders will be together on many occasions, providing the possibility of a “pull-aside”.
Mr Krishna, who is leaving on a 10-day visit, will represent India at meeting of the 65th United Nations General Assembly and other associated events and will be joined by foreign secretary Nirupama Rao who is already there.
Ms Rao is currently in Washington to discuss and firm up the agenda for US President Barack Obama’s maiden visit to India in November. The two ministers will be at the UN Secretary General’s dinner and later at the Saarc foreign ministers meeting in New York. —PTI