-The Hindu NIN centenary year fete begins with release of report on urban health Hyderabad: One-sixth of India’s adult male population smokes tobacco while nearly a third consumes alcohol, suggest latest findings from the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN). The city-based national-level institute kick-started its centenary year on Tuesday with release of a report on urban health. During Tuesday’s Foundation Day gathering, the institute felicitated its former directors, INCluding some of the first scientists...

On the 148th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi, cleanliness drives were officially organised across the country so as to promote Swachh Bharat Abhiyan. A few days before 2nd October, the National Institute of Nutrition (NIN), under the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), released a report that attempts to connect the dots between sanitation and nutritional status of children. Please click here to access the survey report from NIN.   On...

-Livemint.com The government should put greater emphasis on behaviour change than construction of toilets In 2014, more than half of India’s population still practised open defecation. Prime Minister Narendra Modi set his government the goal of making the country open defecation-free in five years, by the 150th anniversary of M.K. Gandhi’s birthday in 2019, by launching the Swachh Bharat Abhiyan (SBA). Three years later, we are more than halfway into that period,...

-Firstpost.com Baba Ramdev's Ptanjali Ayurved Ltd is all set to win a multi-crore contract to manage mid-day meals in Uttar Pradesh schools, according to people in the know. Ramdev and his men have been actively lobbying for the Rs 700-crore contract in New Delhi, reaching out to influential cabinet ministers and making representations as to why the group is best placed to execute the project, the sources said. The contract is currently...

-The Times of India It is common — and natural — to think of diseases in terms of death. Often, diseases are measured by death — so many people die of heart attacks, so many of dengue, etc. While this is important, there is another dimension not measured by body counts. It is the scale of suffering and pain felt by people who live with diseases. Talk to any middle class...