-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan has expressed grief over the national loss in valuable human resources which is owed to the rising tendency of young people to commit suicide when facing seemingly unconquerable adversity. Inaugurating a mass contact programme in Thrissur, Kerala, today to conscientise the general public about the increasing rate of suicides, Dr Harsh Vardhan said, "The mounting incidence of...

-Economic and Political Weekly Despite economic growth, government latrine construction, and increasing recognition among policymakers that open defecation constitutes a health and human capital crisis, it remains stubbornly widespread in rural India. We present evidence from new survey data collected in Bihar, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan and Uttar Pradesh. Many survey respondents' behaviour reveals a preference for open defecation: over 40% of households with a working latrine have at least one...

-Economic and Political Weekly The provisional results of the Sixth Economic Census (2013) of establishments in the non-agricultural sector suggest that this is not a census count. A comparison with the National Sample Survey numbers shows that the number of workers in the latest census may be only a little over half the actual number. There also appear to be some serious omissions in individual States. R Krishnaswamy and S L Shetty...

It is said that the Central Water Commission (CWC) has failed miserably in September 2014 to furnish information on river flow and raise alarm to people of Jammu and Kashmir living in the downstream areas in the midst of heavy rainfall. The CWC is responsible for making forecasts of floods in all flood-prone areas and provides advisory to the States for tackling floods. The NGO South Asia Network on Dams, Rivers...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The national capital territory of Delhi accounts for 1.53% of establishments and 2.34% of the total employment in the country. Of the total people employed by establishments in the city, 26,20,993 were male while 3,63,857 were females. With women forming only 12.19% of the city's workforce, Delhi is way behind the national average of 25.56%. For every woman employed in an establishment, there are seven...