Eradicate Hunger to be Free of Diseases
This is not the first time that hunger has become newsworthy in India. In post-independent India, though all governments launched a war against hunger, each time hunger won the war. Right from Indira Gandhi’s ‘Garibi Hatao’ to Vajpayee’s ‘Roti Aur Kapda’, political parties have used the promise of hunger eradication for electoral gains. Realizing that it is difficult to mobilize votes around the issue of hunger, the BJP used other emotional issues to reap electoral gains. With political parties understanding that it is easy to win elections by spreading hate instead of distributing food, ‘hunger’ moved to the bottom of the list of priorities of manifestos of political parties. With those claiming to have distributed food to the poor at low prices losing elections and those citing ‘Ram Mandir, Pakistan, Patel statue’ winning elections, governments progressively started reducing funds allocated to the poor.
As a result, the world’s tallest statue has raised its head in the country. Speedy projects are being planned for bullet trains. The foundation stone has been laid to build the Ram Mandir. Preparations are now on to bring to the forefront the controversy around the Krishna temple. All this is being done using the media to make people believe that the country is moving towards becoming a world leader. At the same time, India has performed poorly in the Global Hunger Index (GHI). Last year if India was ranked 102nd in the GHI, this year it has improved its position to the 94th rank. Ironically, neighboring Pakistan is in the 88nd rank. The increase in the number of the hungry people in India has surpassed that in Pakistan. The report has also shown that India’s performance is worse than Bangladesh’s. During the UPA administration, malnutrition rates in India had crossed 45 per cent. Now, under the leadership of Prime Minister Narendra Modi, hunger continues its unstoppable victory march.
The moment India’s poor performance in GHI was announced, several experts started criticizing the government’s neglect towards malnutrition. And as usual, the government is blaming ‘Coronavirus’ for its failures. But the truth is beyond that. For the last ten years, all government programmes have focused on the rich. With the belief that the prosperity of the corporate sector translates to the prosperity of the country, the government has forgotten that the poor are part of the country’s development. This government has adopted global attention and investments in mega projects as its development criterion. The massive Patel statue and bullet train projects are a part of this agenda to attract global attention. Demonetization, GST, and lockdown have weakened the foundation of the Indian economy. The government’s wrong decisions destroyed rural industries, medium sized industries, and the retail economy. Digitization and Aaadhar card deprived the poor of the welfare benefits provided by the government and it became impossible for some of them even to avail themselves of the Public Distribution System (PDS) food grains. The stories of those who died having been deprived of rationed food as they had no Aadhar card were splashed on the front pages of newspapers. With a faulty and inefficient PDS, the government’s new rules directly affected the poor.
Now, the government is citing the excuse of ‘Coronavirus’ for everything. The government is hiding the fact that hunger has been drastically increasing right from the days of demonetization. Natural calamities and epidemics are not new to the world. If the country had cared for its poor, designed the PDS efficiently, prioritized eradication of hunger, the nation need not have feared the Coronavirus. Even when the country was in a state of shock due to the hunger caused by the lockdown, the food grains in godowns were diverted for the purpose of producing sanitizers instead of reducing hunger. Experts have warned that hunger can trigger other diseases even if the Coronavirus disappears from our midst.
Doctors have already said that the Coronavirus is a disease that can spread to others quickly but it is not a deadly virus. If tuberculosis and Coronavirus diseases are compared, a country like India must fear tuberculosis more. The World Health Organization (WHO) said on Wednesday that the Coronavirus can destroy the country’s progress in the eradication of tuberculosis in the country. The WHO has expressed anguish that countries like India and South Africa that are most impacted by tuberculosis are diverting the funds allocated for tuberculosis for its battle against the Coronavirus. Even if Coronavirus ceases to exist, India’s health problems will not end. In the future, tuberculosis could become a huge problem due to two reasons. One, with the funds allocated for tuberculosis getting diverted to other services, accessing medicines and treatment would become increasingly difficult for those with tuberculosis. Two, with malnutrition the most important contributing factor for tuberculosis, increasing hunger could aggravate the problem of tuberculosis.
In such a situation, the government should change its dual stand with regard to the consumption of beef that has the benefit of offering maximum proteins. People affected due to the lack of food and suffering hunger pangs should have easy access to beef. The rest can be exported. The government’s acceptance of the consumption of beef as an integral part of the food system can lead to the reduction in malnutrition. The criterion for the identification of the poor should change. Comprehensive changes should be made in the distribution of food grains to make sure that food grains reach eligible families instead of letting them rot and consumed by worms in depots. The government should immediately understand that diseases can be won by winning over hunger. Otherwise, forget becoming a world leader, India might become a problem to the world due to the continued spread of diseases such as tuberculosis.
Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.
Texas halts H-1B visas at state universities, agencies; to affect Indians
Houston (US) (PTI): Texas Governor Greg Abbott has ordered state agencies and public universities to immediately halt new H-1B visa petitions, tightening hiring rules at taxpayer-funded institutions, a step likely to impact Indian professionals.
The freeze will remain in effect through May 2027.
The directive issued on Tuesday said that the state agencies and public universities must stop filing new petitions unless they receive written approval from the Texas Workforce Commission.
The governor's order, in a red state that is home to thousands of H-1B visa holders, comes as the Trump administration has initiated steps to reshape the visa programme.
“In light of recent reports of abuse in the federal H-1B visa programme, and amid the federal government’s ongoing review of that programme to ensure American jobs are going to American workers, I am directing all state agencies to immediately freeze new H-1B visa petitions as outlined in this letter,” Abbot said.
Institutions must also report on H-1B usage, including numbers, job roles, countries of origin, and visa expiry dates, the letter said.
US President Donald Trump on September 19 last year signed a proclamation ‘Restriction on entry of certain non-immigrant workers’ that restricted the entry into the US of those workers whose H-1B petitions are not accompanied or supplemented by a payment of USD 1,00,000.
The H1-B visa fee of USD 1,00,000 would be applicable only to new applicants, i.e. all new H-1B visa petitions submitted after September 21, including those for the FY2026 lottery.
Indians make up an estimated 71 per cent of all approved H-1B applications in recent years, according to US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS), with China in the second spot. The major fields include technology, engineering, medicine, and research.
Tata Consultancy Services (TCS) is the second-highest beneficiary with 5,505 approved H-1B visas in 2025, after Amazon (10,044 workers on H-1B visas), according to the USCIS. Other top beneficiaries include Microsoft (5,189), Meta (5,123), Apple (4,202), Google (4,181), Deloitte (2,353), Infosys (2,004), Wipro (1,523) and Tech Mahindra Americas (951).
Texas public universities employ hundreds of foreign faculty and researchers, many from India, across engineering, healthcare, and technology fields.
Date from Open Doors -- a comprehensive information resource on international students and scholars studying or teaching at higher education institutions in the US -- for 2022-2023 showed 2,70,000 students from India embarked on graduate and undergraduate degrees in US universities, accounting for 25 per cent of the international student population in the US and 1.5 per cent of the total student population.
Indian students infuse roughly USD 10 billion annually into universities and related businesses across the country through tuition and other expenses – while also creating around 93,000 jobs, according to the Open Doors data.
Analysts warn the freeze could slow recruitment of highly skilled professionals, affecting academic research and innovation.
Supporters say the directive protects local jobs, while critics caution it could weaken Texas’ competitiveness in higher education and research.
The order comes amid broader debate in the US over skilled immigration and state-level interventions in federal programmes.
H-1B visas allow US companies to hire technically-skilled professionals that are not easily available in America. Initially granted for three years, these can be extended for another three years.
In September 2025, Trump had also signed an executive order ‘The Gold Card’, aimed at setting up a new visa pathway for those committed to supporting the United States; with individuals who can pay USD 1 million to the US Treasury, or USD 2 million if a corporation is sponsoring them, to get access to expedited visa treatment and a path to a Green Card.
