-The Hindu Kolkata (West Bengal): Of the 341 blocks in the State, 81 blocks have water with more arsenic than the permissible limit and 49 blocks with more fluoride than the standard value. North 24 Parganas district, where about 20 blocks are affected with arsenic contamination, is the worst affected and is followed by Nadia, where 17 blocks and Murshidabad with 14 blocks where arsenic in groundwater is higher than the limit. Certain...
More »SEARCH RESULT
Investment in midwifery can save millions of lives of women and newborns
-WHO, UNFPA, International Confederation of Midwives PRAGUE, CZECH REPUBLIC - A report released today by UNFPA, the United Nations Population Fund together with the International Confederation of Midwives (ICM), WHO and partners reveals that major deficits in the midwifery workforce occur in 73 countries where these services are most desperately needed. The report recommends new strategies to address these deficits and save millions of lives of women and newborns. The 73 African,...
More »Average Indian lives longer now: WHO
The latest WHO report entitled World Health Statistics 2014 delineates the performance made on the health front by India vis-à-vis other nations between 1990 and 2012. It also presents the challenges that the new government at the Centre should try to resolve. In India, life expectancy at birth (both sexes, in years) has increased from 58 in 1990 to 66 in 2012. While life expectancy at birth for men rose from 57...
More »Conflict of interest in setting norms for pharmaceuticals in WHO -Rema Nagarajan
-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The World Health Organisation's (WHO) work of setting up norms and standards for production of medicines seems to be flawed by a fundamental conflict of interest. At the heart of its standard setting work is an entity the International Conference on Harmonization (ICH) in which majority of the WHO member countries have no voting rights and which is dominated by pharmaceutical industry groups. This glaring...
More »Disabilities of our democracy-Jayna Kothari and David Seidenberg
-The Hindu When an electoral system structurally discriminates against particular categories such as persons with disabilities, it is tantamount to a failure of the democracy as a whole The citizens of India are in the process of casting their votes in what is being widely hailed as the largest election in human history. By sheer size, the 16th Lok Sabha elections signal a triumph not only for India, but for democratic exercises...
More »