-Down to Earth Health experts blame Centre's over-emphasis on women's sterilisation for the Chhattisgarh tragedy THERE WAS nothing right about the sterilisation camp held on November 8 in Chhattisgarh's Takhatpur block of Bilaspur district. An overambitious government doctor-with unsterilised equipment and virtually no manpower-set out to conduct laparoscopic tubectomy on 83 women in an abandoned private hospital. The mass sterilisation led to the death of 13 women and left others critically ill. They were...
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India's ranking on global corruption index improves
-PTI NEW DELHI: India has showed some improvement in addressing corruption this year, ranking 85th among 175 countries as against 94th last year, graft watchdog Transparency International India (TII) said on Wednesday. Denmark retained its position as the least corrupt country in 2014 with a score of 92 while North Korea and Somalia shared the last place, scoring just 8, it said. In India's neighbourhood, China moved to 100th place, down from 80th...
More »Exploitation, by law -Vijay Raghavan
-The Indian Express The recent proposal by the National Commission for Women to legalise prostitution has opened up an old debate. It is a misnomer that legalisation would lead to improving the lives of women in prostitution by way of reduced harassment by the police and provision of healthcare facilities. Advocates of legalisation should first examine the experience of countries where prostitution has been legalised. The mere fact that licensing has...
More »Four states in south make up 50% of HIV cases -Adarsh Jain
-The Times of India COIMBATORE: Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Karnataka account for 3.6 lakh HIV cases, about 50% of the patients in the country. The southern states are also among the top four in the country, with Tamil Nadu alone having 80,685 HIV affected people of the total 7.7 lakh as on May 2014. Andhra Pradesh (including Telengana) tops the list with 1.7 lakh HIV affected people, followed by Maharashtra...
More »Karnataka's Smart, New Solar Pump Policy for Irrigation -Tushaar Shah, Shilp Verma, and Neha Durga
-Economic and Political Weekly The runaway growth in states of subsidised solar pumps, which provide quality energy at near-zero marginal cost, can pose a bigger threat of groundwater over-exploitation than free power has done so far. The best way to meet this threat is by paying farmers to "grow" solar power as a remunerative cash crop. Doing so can reduce pressure on aquifers, cut the subsidy burden on electricity companies, reduce...
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