Free trade agreements and bilateral investment treaties make privileges for and treatment of foreign direct investors legally binding. Thus, apart from the concerns of being able to capture the ''real'' financial and economic contribution of foreign direct investment inflows, FDI definitions are also about protecting the ''rights'' of the so-defined investors in the host country. Keeping this in mind, the article analyses India's current FDI policy and warns that if we define FDI within our national regulatory framework too broadly to allow instruments and flexibility that were earlier resisted, we would have already lost most of the leverage in investment negotiations at the regional and multilateral levels.

This Report is an update of the Rural Food Insecurity Atlas of 2001 released by the M S Swaminathan Research Foundation (MSSRF) and the World Food Programme (WFP). Since then, numerous new programmes have been initiated by the central and state governments for achieving food security in the country. Giving a broad indicative picture of the level of food insecurity in different states and the operation of the nutrition safety net programmes, the Report concludes that the State has to play a crucial role in enhancing foodgrain output, ensuring the widest access to food through expansion of livelihood opportunities and promoting biological utilisation through appropriate investments in public health measures.