-The Economic Times It's not just India that is baking. Globally, this seems to be one of the worst summers in recorded history. The global average temperature for May was the second hottest ever since 1880 - the year records were first compiled -- US National Climatic Data Centre (NCDC) has said. Only 2010 witnessed a worse May.  The NCDC said such a hot May was never recorded in the northern hemisphere.  No...

-The Business Standard The government must prepare for below-normal monsoon A massive 30 per cent deficiency in the monsoon rainfall in June, coupled with an anticipated low precipitation in September, may add to the government’s difficulties in achieving its growth and fiscal deficit targets. Agriculture may not be the only victim of poor rainfall. Its contribution to gross domestic product (GDP) may have dipped to mere 15 per cent but it still...

-PTI Rajkot: The consumption of bottled water in India has shown a jump of 21 per cent in last fiscal but still India is far behind as compared to global average, according to a research recently conducted by leading marketing firm IKON.  The per capita consumption of bottled water in India was at 16.20 litres during 2010-11 and jumped by almost 21 percent to 19.60 litres in 2011-12, IKON said in its...

While the country has made progress in reducing poverty, it has lagged behind in improving sanitation India has made headway in reducing poverty and giving access to drinking water for much of its population, but has lagged behind in improving sanitation, food security, maternal mortality and gender equity standards, putting it at risk of missing key targets, said the Millennium Development Goals Report 2012 released on Monday. According to the report, which...

Actual targets remain far from desired rate With one maternal death reported every 10 minutes, India is likely to miss the Millennium Development Goal (MDG) related to maternal health, a latest United Nations report says. While there is an improvement from maternal death in every six minutes in 2010 to 10 minutes now, the MDG target in this respect is unlikely to be met, the report said. At present, the Maternal Mortality...