-Down to Earth The country accounts for 29 per cent of the global deaths of newborns on their first day of birth In spite of reducing child mortality, deaths of infants in India on the first day of birth is still way too high and likely to hamper it from achieving the millennium development goal for curbing infant mortality rate (IMR) In 2012, as many as 1.013 million babies died on the...

-Live Mint At 287 million, India has 37% of the total population of illiterate adults across the world, according a Unesco report New Delhi: The world will miss its goal of universal education by 2015, with millions of children and adults still to be schooled, said a United Nations (UN) body. India has the highest population of illiterate adults, 287 million, 37% of the total population of such people across the world,...

-Frontline A report by ActionAid and the Tata Institute of Social Sciences highlights the vulnerability and tragic living conditions of thousands of children who take shelter in Mumbai's streets. IN 1988, the acclaimed film-maker Mira Nair made Salaam Bombay!, a poignantly revealing film on street children in Mumbai. The plot revolves around the protagonist, Krishna or "Chaipau", who is kicked out of his home by his mother for having damaged his...

November last when a young journalist was allegedly sexually assaulted by the editor of Tehelka, a magazine where she worked, an important report on gender bias of Indian laws was launched by the United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA). Titled 'The Law and Son Preference in India: A Reality Check' the report claims that most Indian laws -- be it prevention of dowry law, anti sexual assault law or inheritance law--...

-Live Mint/ Bloomberg As much as better policies and better tax system, it's the humble toilet that can be an engine of future Indian growth On Tuesday, the United Nations marked its inaugural World Toilet Day, designed to draw attention to the fact that more than one-sixth of humanity still lacks indoor sanitation, and that the world needs new ideas and technologies to deal with one of the most basic...