-The Telegraph People who stop smoking before the age of 40 may on average gain an extra 10 years of life expectancy, according to a study that researchers say has relevance to India where people typically quit only after falling ill. A British study described as the world’s largest to assess the hazards of smoking and the benefits of quitting has shown that quitting before 40 can help avoid excess mortality observed...

-The Hindustan Times The number of infants (below age of one year) succumbing in state has gone down by three for every 1000 children born in the course of last year. Good news, but with a rider. The state continues to retain the infamous tag of being the worst place to be born in the country as it still records the highest infant mortality rate (IMR) among the 29 states and...

-The Hindu The epidemic is running amok. And the government is finally waking up to the reality. Tuberculosis was declared a global health emergency in 1993, but it has been growing unchecked. Today, TB is causing millions of deaths every year globally. Like any infectious disease, TB is prevalent even in developed countries. But it is a more serious problem in the developing and populous countries. India and China together account for nearly...

-The Indian Express Surguja: One hundred and seventy-four children dead in 2010, 133 in 2011, 158 this year. In a region marked by gross poverty and hunger in north Chhattisgarh, those are the figures for just the Surguja district hospital, and for just the six months between April-September. Most of the children died of malnutrition and anaemia, most of them within the first month of their life. Surguja collector R Prasanna concedes...

-The Times of India India's love for a male child has led to cold-blooded murder of three million girl children over the last decade. By government's own admission, the ministry of statistics and programme implementation in its latest report on state of children says three million girl children have gone missing in 2011 compared to 2001. Even as the world celebrates the maiden " International Day of the Girl Child", India doesn't seem...