-The Hindu The large sums of money spent in the eradication of the disease is an investment in the economic development of the country In the 1980s, only three decades ago, 200,000 to 400,000 children, all under 5 years, were afflicted with polio paralysis annually in India. That was a daily average of 500 to 1000 cases. By the age of six, eight among 1,000 children already had polio paralysis; two would...

-The Telegraph A children’s vaccine against a stomach infection has triggered controversy with some doctors claiming there is not enough data to show it is effective in India and accusing a leading drug company of using a misleading advertisement to promote the vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK) has stopped the advertisement for the vaccine intended to protect children from potentially life-threatening rotavirus infections after the advertising industry’s self-regulating body upheld a doctor’s complaint...

-The Nation The labor campaign confronting Walmart in the United States is planning an international escalation for tomorrow. In partnership with the global union federation UNI, the union-affiliated group Making Change at Walmart is supporting a “Global Day of Action,” with participation expected from Walmart workers in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, India, Nicaragua, South Africa, the United Kingdom and Zambia. The day’s main US protest will be a Miami demonstration featuring...

-The Times of India An average Indian man's life expectancy (LE) at birth has increased by nearly 15 years in the last 40 years, while an average Indian woman is living over 18 years longer than what she did four decades ago. The world population's life span has gained more than a decade since 1970 - from 56.4 years in 1970 to 67.5 years in 2010 for an average male and from...

-Frontline Farmers protest against the Central clearance for coal bed methane exploration in Mannargudi, Tamil Nadu, as they fear it will devastate agriculture in Tiruvarur and Thanjavur districts.  THE woes of the delta farmers of Tamil Nadu are far from over. While the Cauvery tangle continues unresolved, they fear the proposed multi-crore project for commercial exploration and exploitation of coal bed methane (CBM) in the Mannargudi block of Tiruvarur district will prove...