Although food security and the economy in India are improving, the world’s largest democracy still has a long way to go to tackle its high malnutrition rates. In the Global Hunger Index (GHI)’s 2023 report, India ranks 111th with a level of hunger as serious. Out of India’s 1.4 billion population, about 189 million people are estimated to face hunger. A Harvard study, published in the JAMA Network Open, estimates India has 6.7 million children going without food. India had by far the largest number of zero-food children (6.7 million), which is almost half of all zero-food children in the 92 countries included in this Harvard study. The prevalence of malnourished children in India who haven't eaten anything in 24 hours, also known as 'zero-food' children, is comparable to the prevalence rates in West African nations like Guinea, Benin, Liberia, and Mali. Extreme and widespread poverty, challenging and unreliable employment, poor health systems, rapid population growth, pockets of weak governance, climate change, and other social factors and inequalities related to ethnicity, caste, religion, and gender are contributing factors to adverse hunger-related issues in India.