For Bhaskar Kumar it is a struggle to name green leafy vegetables found in India for his homework, as his staple diet is rice and salt, with vegetables served only on festive occasions.

But the 8 year old from Pilakhana village in India's northern state of Uttar Pradesh decides not to ask his mother Shakuni Bai, aware she skipped dinner four times that week.

For Bai is among 194 million Indians going hungry daily, according to the United Nations' Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO), despite India wasting food worth about $14 billion a year, according to government figures.