-The Wall Street Journal These days, Indian policymakers are debating how to create a vast new food entitlement program. There is talk of poor households struggling to cope with high food prices and malnourishment among their children. What you don’t hear much about, however, is the most tragic and outrageous consequence of India’s failure to feed its people adequately: starvation deaths. India is a nation that prides itself on having been self-sufficient in...

Crib deaths have once again returned to haunt Malda Medical College and Hospital. At least 8 children, mostly newborns, died at the hospital in the last 24 hours. While three of the babies were born in the hospital itself, the others were referred to the district hospital. One of the babies was even admitted to the sick newborn care unit (SNCU). Doctors blamed the deaths on low birth weight or premature...

-The Telegraph   The Assam Human Rights Commission has granted a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of a woman who died because of alleged medical negligence at Gauhati Medical College Hospital (GMCH) in 2006. Commission member Jyoti Prasad Chaliha today said they had directed the Assam health department to pay a compensation of Rs 5 lakh to the family of Latika Das, 35, who passed away at the GMCH on...

Residents rushing to government hospitals in the state capital for urgent healthcare are often greeted by cigarette smoke and tobacco stains on the premises. Traders and visitors merrily violate Section 6(b) of the Anti-Tobacco Act, 2003, that bans the sale and consumption of tobacco products within 100 yards of hospitals and health institutions. The Telegraph visited three hospitals in the state capital today and found rules being blown away with the smoke. IGIMS Squatters...

-The Hoot The brutally fatal silencing of three journalists along with the sharp rise in censorship of content in online media and the increasing cases of defamation marked the deterioration of the climate for free speech across India in 2011. Attacks on journalists continued to be high, with 24 recorded instances even as writers, journalists and lawyers bore the brunt of the intolerance of vigilante groups to dissenting opinion. The Free Speech...