Now, the Modi government is preparing to fix how many prawns you should eat.

The Hindustan Times reported that the government is looking at fixing the portion sizes of dishes served by star hotels and restaurants, a fortnight after Prime Minister Narendra Modi expressed concern about wastage of food in his monthly Mann Ki Baat radio programme.

"If a person can eat only two prawns, why should he or she be served six? If a person eats two idlis, why serve four! It's wastage of food and also money people pay for something that they don't eat," said Ram Vilas Paswan, minister of consumer affairs, food and public distribution.

The ministry is drafting a questionnaire for hotels and restaurants to explain what dish sizes they should serve to a customer.

"They are the experts. They should tell us the maximum amount of a dish a person can eat. You go to a Chinese restaurant; they give you so much (of food). We are going to call them (stakeholders) for a meeting. The PM is concerned about food wastage and so we are going to issue instructions to these hotels (about the amount of food to be served)," Paswan told HT on Monday.

He, however, clarified the instructions would be applicable to "standard hotels" and not dhabas that "usually serve thalis".

In his Mann Ki Baat last month, Modi had flagged the issue of food wastage at feasts and termed it as injustice to the poor.

Paswan's latest move comes in addition to a slew of consumer-centric proposals that the ministry has incorporated in a new draft bill to amend Consumer Protection Act.