-The Hindu Chennai: Completely unprepared for disasters: the hospitals in Chennai — private as well as government — were particularly vulnerable, improvising solutions as the situation developed. As water levels rose, Chennai saw every single system associated with modern life abysmally fail —houses collapsed, roads caved in, communication networks went down, sewage pipelines were wrecked, and carcasses floated on roads. Patients in government and private hospitals across the city took a beating. Completely...

-The Indian Express   India’s poor are closely bunched up near the poverty line. This could make poverty alleviation more manageable.    A recent World Bank (WB) report brought out poverty ratios across countries. According to these estimates, poverty in India in 2011-12 could be as low as 12.4 per cent if we use “modified mixed reference period” (MMRP), in which there are three recall periods depending on the nature of items. This...

-The Hindu GNR notes that there has been a big increase in the number of countries on track to meet global nutrition targets, and encourages countries, including India, to establish specific and time-bound targets for malnutrition reduction that are consistent with the new Sustainable Development Goals. Two reports released on Thursday, The Global Nutrition Report (GNR) and India Health Report on Nutrition, 2015 (IHR), offer a critical analysis of the state of...

-IANS Tamil Nadu to get 14 stations; stations to be set up during current five-year plan. The central government on Wednesday said it will set up 100 more flood forecasting stations across the country. “The Central Water Commission (CWC) under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation will set up 40 flood forecasting stations,” the ministry said in a statement. While Tamil Nadu will get 14 stations, three stations will be...

-The Hindu Business Line Rice millers are making a killing due to policy gaps and old rates, says report The government is losing thousands of crores while rice mill owners are raking in the moolah, said the Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) in its report tabled in Parliament on Tuesday. The report said mill owners are cashing in on lacunae in the government’s policy on the sale of paddy and rice by-products —...