-IANS Nearly 56 percent of families in Bihar have a mobile or landline connection, but about 77 percent of the population lack toilets, says a census report, highlighting the paradoxes in the state which has taken big leaps in development but also lagged behind in key areas. "Till 2001, only 2.2 percent families were using any kind of telecom facility in Bihar, now over half of its population owns a phone, as...

The ICDS' plight is symptomatic of the problems plaguing the Union government's flagship schemes for the poor all over the country.   INDIA may be the only country in the world where we describe the ensuring of the basic socio-economic rights of the people in terms of “flagship schemes” that are seen as the benevolent contribution of governments. One problem with this approach is that the delivery of basic services is...

-Live Mint At a time when India plans a multi-pronged attack on malnutrition in 200 high-burden districts, it will pay to examine the cracks in state institutions that have led to past failures and can still derail well-intentioned plans. Melghat, a tribal corner in the northeastern fringes of India’s richest state—Maharashtra—is an apt example of almost everything that has gone wrong in India’s response to malnutrition and child deaths. Every 14th child dies...

-The United Nations Despite improvements in access to water, sanitation and hygiene, the coverage of these services could fall behind if adequate resources are not secured, the United Nations inter-agency group focused on water issues warned in a report released today. The report, released by UN-Water and the World Health Organization (WHO), provides data for 74 developing countries, and stresses that these nations have a chronic lack of technicians and staff in...

Money from the Department for International Development has helped pay for a controversial programme that has led to miscarriages and even deaths after botched operations Tens of millions of pounds of UK aid money have been spent on a programme that has forcibly sterilised Indian women and men, the Observer has learned. Many have died as a result of botched operations, while others have been left bleeding and in agony. A...