To unlock the lifesaving potential of breast Milk, two United Nations agencies have unveiled 10 steps to help mothers successfully breast feed, kicking off World Breastfeeding Week today. According to the UN World Health Organization (WHO), breast Milk is the ideal food for newborns and infants because it is safe and gives them the nutrients necessary for healthy development. It also contains antibodies to protect infants from common childhood illnesses. Although exclusive...

Bharat Petroleum Corporation Limited (BPCL) is to set up a community kitchen at the district headquarters hospital here shortly. The project is mooted as part of the Union Government's ‘Vision-2015' programme to make the domestic LPG available to the deprived sections of society wherever possible through the common LPG kitchen mode. The features of the scheme had been drafted by the Union Ministry of Petroleum and Natural Gas. BPCL Territory Manager...

After nearly 15 straight months of double-digit food inflation, the government announced on Thursday that food inflation had dipped to 9.67% for the week that ended on July 17. That's small consolation for most Indians, particularly the poor, who have seen a relentless assault on their food budgets that has resulted in essential items being dropped from the menu, giving rise to a whole new enforced "austerity diet". Since no...

Acting with determination and firm action, it should be possible for India to step up its agricultural growth rate to 10 per cent. The 11th Five Year Plan seeks to achieve 4 per cent growth rate in agriculture by the end of the Plan period. The Planning Commission is working towards an overall 9 per cent to 10 per cent growth rate. But the target of 4 per cent growth rate is...

How fresh and healthy are the vegetables that you consume daily? Not much, according to the Union health ministry. In a bid to make them look garden fresh and ensure that they grow faster to reach markets, farmers are using chemicals at random that threaten to cause serious health hazards to consumers. Expressing concern, minister of state for health Dinesh Trivedi has said, "Eating vegetables -- a must for good...