-The Hindustan Times The country is ostensibly in the throes of a great social movement for sanitation. Gandhi's name is evoked, Prime Minister Narendra Modi leads from the front, ministers lift brooms for cameras, and officers, college and school children take oaths against littering and to clean their surroundings. Earlier the PM pledges in his Independence Day speech toilets for girls and boys in all schools. It appears that the squalor of...

-The Business Standard The cracker industry in Sivakasi is estimated to be worth about Rs 3,500 cr B Bagyalakshmi, S Mahalakshmi and K Sankaralingam have two things in common. All used to work in firecracker and matchbox making units at Sivakasi in Tamil Nadu. However, they rebuilt their lives after studying at the National Child Labour Project (NCLP)'s special training centres, run with the financial assistance from Central and state governments. While...

-The Hindu Ignoring hunger and malnutrition will have significant costs to any country's development. Nutrition improvement has both intrinsic and instrumental value One of the disappointments in the post-reform period in India has been the slow progress in the reduction of malnutrition, especially with reference to the underweight among children. In fact, the rate of change in the percentage of underweight children has been negligible in the period 1998-99 to 2005-06; the...

-The Hindu Dr. Mickey Chopra, global head of UNICEF's health programmes explained to R. Prasad why he was very encouraged by the efforts taken by the government to reduce child mortality, and how these efforts are paying off, especially in States like Bihar. * How is India doing as far as meeting the MDG 4 target is concerned? India is changing very quickly. We are seeing very encouraging signs... we are starting to...

-The Hindu Corruption in India has undergone a qualitative shift from the days of licence Raj to the era of liberalisation. Opportunities for making money have come in handy for politicians, who were also dealing with a new political situation of fragmentation and instability. In the days leading to the 2008 Assembly election in Karnataka, slum-dwellers in Bangalore were startled to see small bundles flying in through their windows at night. The...