A Human Rights Watch report emphasises the need for a system of recording and investigating all maternal deaths.  THE maternal mortality ratio (MMR) is calculated by the number of maternal deaths for every 100,000 births. Consider this: In 2005, India’s MMR was 16 times that of Russia, 10 times that of China and four times higher than that in Brazil. Why should there be such high maternal mortality rates in...

How green are our cities? The key number in measuring that now is the per capita emission or how big a carbon footprint an individual leaves. The developed world pegs lndia's per capita emission at 1.7 tonnes. But a study by a non-profit organization of 40 Indian cities says it is much lower at less than 1 tonne. The worst big city in India is Kolkata, at 1.83 tonnes, but it is...

Opening more medical colleges is not the solution to India’s chronic shortage of doctors in the rural areas.  India is the largest supplier of foreign medical graduates to the United States and the United Kingdom. Yet, its own rural areas have remained chronically deprived of professional doctors. The historical antecedents of these shortages could be traced to a landmark health policy document, the Bhore Committee Report of 1946. That report...

Civil society's demand to appoint Kiran Bedi as the next Chief Information Commissioner has started an interesting debate. It has several dimensions. One section of media, albeit very small, is projecting that there is intense lobbying going on for Bedi. The word "lobby" has unholy connotations and at times, implies vested interests. Is it that one day I, Aamir Khan, Anna Hazare, Subhash Chandra, Baba Ramdev, Madhu Trehan, Shabana Azmi,...

The United Nations Development Programme-sponsored 2009 Human Development Report on migration, “Overcoming Barriers: Human mobility and Development” has been widely acknowledged as a path-breaking study on human movement. Shattering the many myths around migration, the report concludes that most migration is in fact beneficial, and calls for supporting policies to ease barriers to free movement. Senior Assistant Country Director, UNDP, K. Seeta Prabhu. discusses the report with The Hindu For...