The government has failed to effectively implement its immunization programmes targeted at reducing child mortality. Of the 113 deaths due to diphtheria — a vaccine-preventable disease — in the country in 2009, 82 occurred in Delhi. According to a report on the national health profile released by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence, there has also been a staggering increase in cases of pertussis (whooping cough) from 75 in 2008...

A year after the World Health Organisation declared an Influenza A(H1N1) pandemic, a joint investigation by the British Medical Journal (BMJ) and the Bureau of Investigative Journalism has raised “troubling questions about how WHO managed conflicts of interest among the scientists who advised its pandemic planning, and about the transparency of the science underlying its advice to governments.” The open access findings are published in the journal (“Conflicts of interest:...

Why is Madhya Pradesh ranked so low in the Millennium Development Goals like child and maternal mortality, extreme poverty, hunger and safe drinking water? Social sector allocation has increased only during the last few years. Before 2005, there wasn’t enough money allocated to it when compared to poverty alleviation schemes. Also, it takes time for the benefits of the allocations to reach people and for real change to manifest itself....

Children of a remote north-east village Dibrual Dehingio Gaon are now studying in nearby English medium schools, 40 people of Padamunda village in Orissa are employed in transportation business in nearby town and habitants of flood-prone regions of Bihar are no longer starving during rainy seasons; thanks to construction of rural roads under country’s flagship programme Bharat Nirman. Better connectivity has pushed up agricultural income in rural India by 17.6%...

Governments risk failing some of the world's most impoverished and vulnerable groups unless human rights are put at the centre of efforts to eradicate poverty, Amnesty International warned on Wednesday. In a new report looking at how to strengthen the Millennium Development Goals [MDGs], the organization highlights how key targets fall short of existing international human rights standards. The report, From Promises to Delivery, outlines crucial steps governments can take to deliver...