-The Business Standard We need a food safety model based on societal objectives of nutrition, livelihood and safety My local vegetable vendor sells ordinary lemons packed in plastic bags. It has got me thinking if this is a sign of improving standards of food safety and hygiene. After all, if we go to any supermarket in the rich and food-processed world, we will find food neatly packed so that there is no...

-The Hindu India may have achieved a success rate of 88 per cent in treatment of tuberculosis - higher than the global treatment success rate of 85 per cent - but HIV-TB co-infection continues to be a cause of major concern, as the percentage of people infected with the twin infection increased substantially between 2010 and 2011. The percentage of TB patients tested for HIV increased nationally from 32 per cent...

-The Hindu As the world observed World Water Day last week, Bolivian water activist Pablo Solon narrates how his countrymen forced the repeal of a water privatisation attempt by the government What began as an ordinary citizen’s protest against water privatisation laid out the path for a bigger revolution that eventually paved way for Bolivia’s first indigenously elected government. With worldwide discussions for sustainable management of fresh water resources gaining ground in a...

-Live Mint HRD minister says government will push for the fulfilment of RTE's conditions even after deadline ends A week before the implementation deadline for its flagship Right to Education (RTE) Act expires, the government on Friday accepted that it had failed to achieve many of the targets of what it envisaged as a landmark measure. At least 13 states have written to the human resource development (HRD) ministry for an extension owing...

-PTI Nearly 2,000 children around the globe, under the age of five, die every day from diarrhoeal diseases linked to unsafe water, poor sanitation and hygiene, with 24 per cent of the deaths occurring in India alone, a U.N. report has warned. Globally, an estimated 2,000 children under the age of five die every day from diarrhoeal diseases and of these some 1,800 deaths are linked to water, sanitation and hygiene,...