-The Hindu India has close to 1,00,000 cases of drug-resistant TB, most of which remain undiagnosed and untreated. So India’s state of preparedness to fight DR TB remains questionable. In a small, airless room in Dharavi, Owais sat chatting with his wife and two children. Outside, the famous rains of Mumbai beat down relentlessly on the thousands of tiny rooms that dot Dharavi. “I hope it doesn’t flood,” said Owais’s wife as he...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The Naveen Patnaik government has decided to extend the cheap lunch scheme - Aahar - to all the district headquarters and 16 select urban local bodies from March 1. The government now plans to provide the cheap meals to nearly one lakh people across the state in the first phase, sources said. The move will coincide with the launch of centenary celebrations of Biju Patnaik. Final touches to the plan...

-Civil Society Online Bhubaneswar: Laxman Goud, a 35-year-old farmer in Thakurpalli village in Komna block of Nuapada district of Odisha, used to lead a very simple life. He was a devoted follower of Mahima Dharma, a subaltern religion practised by underprivileged castes in Odisha. One morning, he took his life in desperation. He couldn’t repay Rs 19,000 he had borrowed from a local moneylender at 36 per cent interest. Goud had invested...

-The Hindu Telengana: Empowered by disciplined thrift activity for close to two decades now, a group of enterprising women members of the Self Help Groups (SHGs) are charting a new course by entering male dominated domain of marketing agriculture produce directly to the processors. The effort has paid off with the farmers in at least 10 mandals of Nizamabad and Adilabad district benefiting a lot. Thanks to the encouragement by Gram Abhyudaya...

-Millennium Post New Delhi: Delhi government has tightened the noose around private hospitals that managed to obtain prime government land in the city by promising free treatment to poor patients but have completely denied the facility after getting the land. The government has started the procedure to recover around Rs 203 crore ‘unwarranted profits’ which they had earned by utilising beds reserved for the Economically Weaker Section (EWS) category patients on...