Nutrition and Food Security in India: Enriching the Cycle of Research, Public Policy and Practice

Jalandhar Pradhan

Sep 2025 · Springer Nature

Ebook

200

Pages

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About this ebook

This volume focuses on pace and progress in India towards achieving various targets of SDG2: ‘End hunger, achieve food security and improved nutrition and promote sustainable agriculture’ and SDG3: ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’. The chapters provide detailed analyses of several programmes and schemes that exist to address the issue of nutrition and food security in India, such as the National Nutrition Mission (NNM) launched in 2018 with challenging goals to eradicate malnutrition. It examines why despite efforts, public health crisis, like malnutrition in several forms and food insecurity, remains grim across the Indian states. The book relies mostly on the recently published National Family Health Survey (NFHS) data (2019-21) which indicates a need for substantial improvements across multiple domains to achieve the global SDG targets by 2030.

The book addresses three broad themes: trends and determinants of public health nutrition; food security and public policy; equity in nutrition and food security. Chapters have been contributed by academic researchers as well as policy makers and experts working at the grassroot level to present a holistic picture. The book is thus a comprehensive blend of theoretical perspectives and practical insights, providing practical knowledge insights, and examining nutrition and food security from varied dimensions, including policy, agriculture, health, economics, and sociology. Furthermore, it integrates latest research findings and data, ensuring that readers are presented with the most up-to-date information and insights.

The use of lucid language and real-world examples aim to facilitate a broader readership. Its multidisciplinary approach enables readers to gain a more comprehensive understanding of the complex issues at play, making the book a valuable resource for researchers, policymakers, and practitioners.

About the author

Jalandhar Pradhan is working as a Professor in Health Economics in the Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, National Institute of Technology (NIT) Rourkela, Odisha, India. He received his PhD in Population Studies from International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, India. He pursued his postdoctoral research work from the Netherlands Interdisciplinary Demographic Institute (NIDI), The Netherlands, in healthcare financing. Presently, he is leading a Centre of Excellence on Public Health Nutrition at NIT Rourkela in collaboration with UNICEF. He has published more than 70 scientific research articles at the international reviewed journals like Lancet, Lancet Public Health, Health Policy and Planning, Health Policy, Health Economics Review, PLOS ONE, BMC Public Health, BMC Geriatrics, and International Journal for Equity in Health. Additionally, he has also published a book titled ‘Child Health and Well-being in India: Equity vs Efficiency’. With his profound research experience, he was nominated as a Member of the World Health Organization (WHO) Scientific Research Group (SRG) on Equity Analysis and Research at the Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights, Geneva. Under his guidance, 10 students have successfully completed their PhDs, and

he is currently mentoring 11 more aspiring scholars. He has also been involved in the study design of large scale national level surveys like Indian Demographic Health Survey, Coverage Evaluation Survey, District Level Household Survey, World Health Survey (WHS), Study on Global Ageing and Adult Health (SAGE). He is in the editorial board of journals like PLOS ONE, BMC Public Health, Journal of Health, Population and Nutrition, Demography India and Discover Public Health. His research interests include health economics and public policy, nutrition economics, climate change and health, economic impact of non-communicable diseases, ageing and health, maternal and child health, healthcare financing, and health analytics.

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