Adding to the debate over celebrity economists blaming India’s malnutrition and stunting vis-à-vis Sub Saharan Africa on genetic differences, Dean Spears, a public health expert and a visiting fellow at Delhi School of Economics, offers evidence connecting our poor sanitation and open defecation with high morbidity and malnutrition. (see both links below). In an evidence-based paper titled Policy Lessons from Implementing India’s Total Sanitation Campaign (2012), based on the review...

-The Business Standard The Uttarakhand floods have put the spotlight on the competence of the national body which was created with a vision 'to build a safer and disaster-resilient India' When thousands got swept away by floods in Uttarakhand on the night of June 16, little help reached the mountains till at least a day had passed. Though the weather department had issued a warning, the magnitude of the disaster shows that...

-The Hindu There is reason to be optimistic about the U.N. report on disability rights, but there is also disappointment at its failure to make the poverty connection The disability movement has waited anxiously for the report of the high level panel on post-2015, formed by the Secretary General of the United Nations, which was released in May. This document is expected to set the tone for the Secretary General's report on...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Yet another report has criticized the government for tardy implementation of the right to education (RTE). While the three-year deadline for implementation passed in April, 11% schools are still without toilets, 20% don't have safe drinking water and 74% are without a library. The report by the organization Child Rights and You (CRY) also states that 61% schools demand proof of age, which is not...

-The Indian Express Lucknow: The free laptop distribution scheme of Samajwadi Party government has caught the eye of Microsoft, world's largest software company, which is going to conduct a detailed study on the most populist scheme in UP. Microsoft has engaged Mumbai-based Indian Market Research Bureau (IMRB) to conduct a study of the scheme and prepare literature on its planning, execution and response of beneficiaries. A team of IMRB will be visiting...