After independence India has inherited an economy of mass poverty. We have suffered from food shortage till the arrival of green revolution. Green revolution certainly has increased food availability in the country. In spite of many achievements in economic growth and reduction of poverty, the nutritional status of children measured by anthropomorphic measures remains to be dismal. India remained a laggard among developing countries. Government has come with many initiatives to address the problem. It is very important to evaluate the performance economy in the improvement nutritional status during the last two decades of high growth. In this study we use the data provided by the various rounds of NFHS surveys. We analyze the performance of economy at the national level and a detailed analysis of states is undertaken. We use rank correlation to find the relationships between different measures of nutritional status and important determinants of their improvements. We find considerable decline in the measures of undernutrition at the aggregate level. There are however significant disparities between rural and urban population and there is persistence of gender disparities, inequality across social groups as well. Some states like Kerala and Tamilnadu continue to be best performing states. States like Andhra Pradesh have moved up the ladder, some states like Bihar continue to be laggards. Improvements in child immunization, drinking water facilities and sanitation explain the differential performance of the state in the achievements of reduction in the measures of malnutrition. Evidences make it abundantly clear that there should be a focus on the laggard states in meeting with challenge of providing safe drinking water facilities and sanitation.