China's population grew to 1.34 billion by 2010, according to census data, which showed an ageing and more urban population that experts say is likely to spur calls for the "one-child" policy to be relaxed. The census released on Thursday showed the population in China, the world's second biggest economy, grew by 5.84 percent from the 1.27 billion in the last census in 2000 and to a level that was smaller...
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Resistance to Jaitapur Nuclear Plant Grows in India by Vikas Bajaj
When a farmer named Praveen Gawankar and two neighbors began a protest four years ago against a proposed nuclear power plant here in this coastal town, they were against it mainly for not-in-my-backyard reasons. They stood to lose mango orchards, cashew trees and rice fields, as the government forcibly acquired 2,300 acres to build six nuclear reactors — the biggest nuclear power plant ever proposed anywhere. But now, as a nuclear...
More »BPL's dividing line by Moyna
Government undecided on criteria to identify families below poverty line A survey by the Indian government in 2002 to determine households below poverty line (BPL) left out many poor families. Nearly a decade later, the Union Ministry of Rural Development (MORD) is trying to set the wrong right. But it is unable to decide on the criteria for identifying poor households. As a consequence, the BPL survey that was to...
More »Glare on ration data
The Supreme Court today slammed the Centre for sticking to the below-poverty-line estimates of the 1991 census in distributing PDS grain when preliminary figures for the 2010-11 census, showing a much higher number of BPL families, are available. The judges also criticised the income cap fixed by the government to determine families below the poverty line (BPL) by suggesting it was outdated. The 1991 census showed 36 per cent of the population...
More »Can India prevent 200 children dying every hour? by Poonam Khetrapal-Singh
It is estimated that India lost 1.8 million children under five in 2008. That is more than 200 child deaths every hour, each day, or more than three deaths every minute. Out of about 25 million babies born every year in India, one million die. Most who survive do not get to grow up and develop well. About 48 per cent are stunted (sub-normal height) and 43 per cent are...
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