Dear Mr. Bhalla, I don't suppose sensible people read your regular fantasies on the rediff. Otherwise by now someone would have posted the reference for the figure that Sainath has quoted. So, here goes,
Patnaik, U. 2003: Food Stocks and Hunger: The Causes of Agrarian Distress, Social Scientist.
Prof. Patnaik has published her research regarding declining food availability in other issues of Social Scientist as well as EPW. I hope, however, that you count her as an economist -- though I have reasons to fear the obverse. Finally, I trust that you are clever enough to realise that there are gaps in your article (?). But as you indicated, in journalism, especially of the pink variety, anything goes.
