Less than two in 10 women in India received medical attention by a qualified professional in 2010 while delivering at home. Contrary to popular belief, fewer women in urban India received medical attention while delivering at home than rural India - 10.8% against 16.2%. Nearly 1 in 4 births overall were attended by "untrained functionaries" - varying from as high as 53.5% in Jharkhand to as low as 0.2% in...

-The Economic Times Repressed, unrevised retail prices by fiat have led to rising diesel consumption nationwide, thoroughly misallocating resources and recklessly fretting away scarce budgetary funds in the bargain. The government needs to promptly decontrol diesel prices and put paid to open-ended oil consumption subsidies, as it has rightly proposed to in the Union Budget.  Further dither and non-decision would wreak havoc in government finances and hook the fiscal deficit figure over...

-PTI A government sub-committee looking into probable sources of funds for urban transport projects in the 12th Plan has suggested the creation of a national fund, resource for which can be generated through taxes on vehicles and petrol consumption.  The recent report of the Sub-Committee on Financing Urban Infrastructure in the 12th Plan said investments to the tune of 87,000 crore were required in the Five Year Plan duration.  The huge investment needs...

-IANS The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has gagged at least two of its senior leaders in Chhattisgarh after they slammed their own government for not taking the Comptroller and Auditor General's (CAG) report seriously, sources say.  Top sources in the BJP here said former union minister and Lok Sabha MP Ramesh Bais and the former Lok Sabha MP Karuna Shukla were advised by the party to "restrain" themselves from making public statements...

-CNN-IBN The great Mughal emperor Akbar once asked if there was any man in his court unbound by his wife's command. The huge mass of his courtiers and public was stunned and stood huddled together barring one meek-looking man, who stepped away and stood alone. Akbar was curious and asked how such a submissive fellow was the only one brave enough to defy his wife. "I am not defying my wife,...