Global efforts to set a target for daily salt consumption at 5 grams, in order to reduce deaths due to stroke, has faced a major setback. The all important United Nations Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Summit in New York, that kicks off on Monday, is unlikely to set a global target for reduction in salt consumption levels. According to the NCD Alliance, a formal alliance of four international federations -- International Diabetes Federation,...

-The United Nations   The United Nations is set to launch an all-out attack next week on non-communicable diseases (NCDs), bringing together dozens of heads of State to promote the lifestyle changes needed to curb the soaring toll of a scourge that already causes over 63 per cent of all the world’s deaths. The high level General Assembly meeting, held at the start of its annual General Debate on Monday and Tuesday, is...

-The Hindu   India ranks very high among the nations struck by the rising wave of “premature deaths” caused by non-communicable diseases, mainly heart and blood ailments, the WHO said in its latest report on Wednesday. The report said that cardiovascular diseases, cancer, chronic respiratory problems, blood pressure and diabetes are an offshoot of growing affluence of the middle classes as well as worsening health conditions among people below poverty line. “Exposure to the...

The foreword — to the Draft National Land Acquisition and Rehabilitation and Resettlement Bill 2011 — that says “urbanisation is inevitable” (I.p.1) signifies danger. The Bill, if enacted in its present form, is likely to worsen, and not stop, displacement of tribal, Dalit and other backward communities. The Bill states: “The issue of who acquires land is less important than the process of land acquisition, compensation for land acquired and...

A high-level meeting on racism, scheduled to take place later this month under the auspices of the General Assembly, is threatening to split the world body and trigger a North-South confrontation. Expressing unfounded fears the meeting might turn out to be anti- Israel, several Western states, including Canada, Germany, the United States, Italy, Austria, the Netherlands, the Czech Republic and Austria, have indicated they will not participate in the meeting. The boycott...