India ranks below Bangladesh, Iraq and North Korea in Global Hunger Index; condition 'serious'

India has ranked below North Korea, Bangladesh and Iraq, according to the global hunger index report released by Washington-based International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) on Thursday.

Ranked 100 among 119 developing countries with global hunger index (GHI) score of 31.4, the report states that India's hunger problem is 'serious'.

A GHI score of 9.9 or lower denotes low hunger; while scores between 35.0 and 49.9 denote 'alarming' hunger, and a score of 20-34.9 means ‘serious’ problem of hunger.

The report showed that India’s rank (100) was lower than all its neighbours including Nepal (72), Myanmar (77), Bangladesh (88), Sri Lanka (84) and China (29)—except Pakistan (106).

It has been ranked third-worst in Asia, who only fared better than Afghanistan and Pakistan.

It further stated that India's poor performance is one of the main reasons pushing the South Asia region to the worst performing category on the GHI scale this year.

The war-torn Central African Republic is the worst affected, followed by Chad, Sierra Leone, Madagascar and Zambia.

The GHI score is based on four indicators - proportion of undernourished in the population, prevalence of child mortality, child stunting, and child wasting.