Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...

Social development zones (SDZs) represent a new approach to creating education and health institutions in the country connecting emerging opportunities in policy. These also address some major constraints that Indian private investment faces today in investing in these two critical sectors of development that directly impact on unlocking human potential. These opportunities are presented by the commencement of Rajiv Awas Yojana, a property-rights driven effort at moving towards a slum-free India...

A rapid assessment of the effects of Endosulfan on cashew plantations, ecology, biodiversity and the people in Kasaragod, conducted by V.S. Vijayan of Salim Ali Foundation, has surmised that the human sufferings and loss of biodiversity caused by the aerial spraying of Endosulfan by the State-owned Plantation Corporation of Kerala in Kasaragod district would qualify as ‘State-sponsored crime'. The study said the State was duty-bound to provide total support to the...

Mahatama Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (MGNREGS) has generated maximum employment opportunities in Haryana because of the maximum utilisation of fund allocated under the scheme by the state government . While reviewing the development works undertaken under the scheme at a special meeting at Jind financial commissioner and principal secretary, development and panchayats department P Raghavendra Rao said on Wednesday. Rao said that the state government had also constituted a high-level...

To many, ecology clearances coming in quick succession first for the 12-million-tonne steel project, including a captive power complex and a minor port that the South Korean Posco is diligently pursuing for close to six years and then for SAIL’s three mining leases at Chiria in Jharkhand appear as history bending revolutions. This is because the ministry of environment and forests, led by environment zealot Jairam Ramesh was till the...