-The Economic Times After Mahatma Gandhi, Jairam Ramesh is the only national leader to be genuinely concerned that 65 years after Independence, some 600 million Indians in the 21st century continue to use open skies as their latrines. While Lee Kuan Yew continues to exhort Singaporeans to have cleaner loos, our ministry of railways thinks depositing human excreta all along the country's length and breadth, including deep into the cities -...

-Outlook Union Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh today said public health system in the country had "collapsed", noting that even poorer countries like Bangladesh and Kenya have superior health indicators. In a candid assessment of the country's health sector, Ramesh also said 70 per cent of the health expenditure is met from private sources, making it a "unique" country. This was the "single most important" reason for indebtedness in rural areas, he...

-Kafila.org Even though Hiamchal Pradesh voted on November 4, Gujarat has been hogging all the limelight. The election in Gujarat is only in the third week of December. Gujarat captures our political imagination as a ‘role model state’ whereas Hiamchal Pradesh is just in our tourism agenda as a top holiday destination. It is hard for anyone to notice Himachal as a political entity among the big brothers like Uttar Pradesh,...

-The Business Standard A study has found that the poor households earned a total of Rs 1,545 cr, spent a total of Rs 1,185 cr, and contributed a savings of Rs 360 cr to the city in 2011 Urban poor living in slums of Bangalore contribute 3-3.5 per cent of the City’s economy. About 9-11 per cent of the city’s population that lives in slums contribute between Rs 1,643 crore to Rs...

-The Hindu Health sector outlay tripled to Rs.3-lakh crore Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said on Saturday that the allocation for the health sector during the 12th Plan had been increased three times over the previous Plan allotment to address complex challenges. The outlay in the 12th Plan had been fixed at Rs. 3-lakh crore, which was 1.95 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product. During the last Plan period, the sector had got...