-The Hindu Adilabad (Andhra Pradesh): Neither cinema nor television is a match for good old folk traditions when it comes to providing succour to distressed souls in rural confines. If it is the vigorous Kolatam in the plains, it is the rhythmic Dandari and the Ghussadi folk dances in tribal areas of Adilabad which are acting as escape valves for the emotionally charged farmers in the backdrop of the debilitating onslaught...

-The Hindu As the country develops economically, its double burden of malnutrition and its health implications will increasingly affect women and those who are socio-economically weak India has one of the highest burdens of underweight women in the world, with rising obesity levels. Using the World Health Organisation classification based on body mass index, or BMI (the ratio of the weight of the body in kilograms to the square of its height...

-The Hindu The International Agency for Research on Cancer, a specialised arm of the World Health Organisation, has sounded an alert for policymakers with its conclusion that there is sufficient evidence now on outdoor air pollution as a cause of lung cancer. A separate evaluation of particulate matter in the air has led to its classification also as a ‘Group 1' pollutant, indicating firm evidence of cancer-causing properties. Given that rapidly...

-Institute of Economic Growth This paper focusses on two Indian laws that seek to guarantee socioeconomic rights: the National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA), an important example of India's recent history of legislation of social and economic rights, and the proposed National Food Security Act (NFSA), currently in Parliament. Various means of democratic politics, including a ten-year old public interest litigation (PIL) in the Supreme Court and public mobilisation through the...

-Newsclick.in Recent studies have shown that even as India fares better than many developing regions of the world on several indicators of growth and development such as GDP, per capita, Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), literacy, life expectancy, etc., the number of malnourished children in India is significantly high. What explains this paradox? The Union Cabinet recently approved a multi-sectoral nutritional programme proposed by the Ministry of Women and Child Development to reduce...