Has India's poorest and most lawless state turned the corner? If you believe the government of the northern state of Bihar, the answer appears to be in the affirmative. According to it, Bihar clocked up a giddy growth rate of 11.03% in 2008-2009. This would make it India's second fastest growing state economy, just behind the industrially-developed western state of Gujarat. Not so long ago, Bihar was written off as a...

Many of the plastic toys sold in India may contain chemicals harmful to children, an environmental group says in a report. The Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) studied a sample of Indian toys and found that all of them contained high levels of phthalates. Phthalates are chemicals used to soften plastic and the group says India has no regulations to control their use. The use of these chemicals in...

The earthquake that has hit Haiti, raising fears that thousands have been killed, is the latest in a long line of natural disasters to befall a country ill-equipped to deal with such events. Hurricanes and flooding are perennial concerns for the poorest country in the western hemisphere, which has time and again been dependent on foreign aid in emergencies. In 1963 hurricane Flora, the sixth deadliest Atlantic hurricane in history,...

In an effort to unburden children, the Kendriya Vidyalaya Sangathan has laid down stringent weight norms for school bags carried by students. KVS has asked its schools to maintain the lowest school bag weight of less than two kg for students in Classes 1 and 2 with the highest bag weight, six kg, allowed for those studying in Classes 8 to 12. KVS has directed the principals of its schools...

The government has decided to simplify the process of issuing disability certificates through a slew of steps that would among other things relieve disadvantaged people in rural areas of the trouble of making long, “cumbersome” trips. The social justice ministry has decided to let doctors at primary health centres issue disability certificates to those with visible handicaps such as blindness, amputations and paralysis of LIMbs. At present, a person with disabilities has...