-Livemint.com The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, being conducted by Unicef and the health ministry, is the first of its kind in terms of sample size and parameters Devthala village, in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district, is abuzz with ‘medical’ activity. In one of its dwellings, a six-year-old’s height, weight, arm length, waist size as well as grip strength are being measured by one of half a dozen surveyors. A Unicef delegation is watching over...

-The Hindu As I write this column, my gaze is on the post-Deepavali haze that has enveloped Delhi. As a third-generation asthmatic, with a fourth-generation asthmatic daughter, it is set me wondering whether returning to Delhi, the city of my birth, from the United States a decade ago was a mistake. This haze is smog (smoke + fog), a hazardous mix of noxious gases and very high levels of suspended respirable...

-The Telegraph The death of more than 50 dengue patients in eight city hospitals this year offers a peek into the severity of the menace but the extent of the crisis remains unknown in the absence of figures from the government. To put things in perspective, the disease caused by the Aedes aegypti mosquito had claimed less than 20 lives across the state last year. The Mamata Banerjee government's decision to prefer secrecy...

-CivilSocietyOnline.com For the past decade state governments have launched a series of Internet-based initiatives to deliver services more efficiently. Technology has been seen as the best way of bypassing red tape and corruption in the system to reach the poor directly with benefits. Beneficiaries are identified through biometrics and a series of tech solutions like smart cards, micro ATMs and so on. The result of these efforts is that India is...

-The Telegraph Guwahati: Arunachal Pradesh has the highest number of liver cancer patients in the country and the second highest stomach cancer cases in the world after China, a nationwide cancer-tracking programme conducted by the Indian Council of Medical Research has found. The latest report on the country's cancer scene, based on data available with the council's population-based cancer registries (PBCR), also shows that Aizawl in Mizoram has the highest incidence of...