With the inability to closely follow-up on women during their pregnancy period impairing its ability to bring down maternal mortality rate, the State government has rolled up its sleeves to address the problem. The solution, here too, seems to lie in technology. The Directorate of Public Health has commissioned the use of the Pregnancy Infant COHORT Monitoring Evaluation (PICME) software for all staff members, primarily in all primary health centres (PHC),...

Infosys Technologies' Founder-Chairman N.R. Narayana Murthy on Thursday called for information and communication technology (ICT) being used in agriculture and rural sectors for more inclusive growth. "We have seen a lot of growth in ICT and it will grow at a higher rate in the future. The sector is constantly growing in India. But there is a need for adoption of ICT in agriculture and rural sectors. ICT adoption in these...

The 50-year-old farmer knew from experience that his onion crop was doomed when torrential rains pounded his fields throughout September, a month when the Indian monsoon normally peters out. For lack of modern agricultural systems in this part of rural India, his land does not have adequate drainage trenches, and he has no safe, dry place to store onions. The farmer, Arun Namder Talele, said he lost 70 percent of...

With the number of non-governmental organisations growing in the country, the government is planning to bring them under a regulatory mechanism to make them accountable. As of now, there are no specific laws or regulations to regulate volunteerism in India. A task force, constituted to examine the issues related to the evolution of an independent, national level, self-regulatory agency for the voluntary organisations and develop accreditation methodologies by the Planning Commission,...

C.Chandramouli, registrar general and census commissoner of India, is on the threshold of one of the most challenging months of his career. As the head of an army of 2.7 million enumerators who will fan out for almost a month beginning 9 February, Chandramouli talked to Mint about the methods and controversies of the second phase of India’s 15th census exercise. Edited excerpts: The National Population Register (NPR) seems to be...