-SocialProgressImperative.org The 2014 Social Progress Index reveals striking differences across countries in their social performance, highlights the very different strengths and weaknesses of individual countries, and provides concrete guidance for national policy agendas. The Index is the sum of three dimensions: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. Each dimension is made up of four equally weighted individual components scored on an objective scale from 0-100. This scale is determined by...

-Down to Earth Grand old party of India renews some old promises and makes some new ones, but will Congress live up to its promises if it wins a third term? The Indian National Congress (INC) presented its manifesto for the upcoming Lok Sabha elections on Wedneday. The manifesto committee claimed the 48-page document was prepared after wide consultations by engaging millions of people, grassroots congress workers and every section of the...

-The Indian Express Public and private efforts must converge to battle it. With two decades of high economic growth, India should have been on its way to controlling tuberculosis. Yet it remains an urgent public health problem. With 1,000 Indians dying every day of TB, and with the highest number of TB patients in the world, India is undoubtedly the crucial battleground for TB control. The enhanced detection of drug-resistant TB has...

-MoneyLife.in India, the world's second largest food producer, is witnessing growing distress and declining confidence in agriculture as most small and landless farmers, with less of a stake, are found to quit farming The recent unseasonal heavy rains, thunder and hailstorms originating from unusually intense western disturbances from the Mediterranean interacting with the south-easterly winds from the Bay of Bengal have ravaged the due-for-harvesting chana, lentils and wheat in Madhya Pradesh,...

-The Hindustan Times It's interesting how some concepts can be mobilising, and their relevance apparently self-evident, while they probably escape any simple analytical definition. ‘Happiness' could be one, despite the celebrated Bhutanese innovation in producing statistics on gross national happiness. ‘Food security' is another. It has been associated with a concern over food price volatility, and the movement of prices was also instrumental in sustaining the debate in India that led to...