-The Hindustan Times   Nearly one-and-a-half years after it banned mining in Goa, the Supreme Court on Monday allowed an annual cap of 20 million tonnes of iron ore extraction in the state. The final capacity that will be allowed to be mined in the state will be decided by an expert panel within the next six months. A special forest bench headed by Justice AK Patnaik said the panel would also advise...

-The Times of India   Sometimes, a shard of reality can raise serious doubts about what looks like a grand feat. A small study of water samples from urban and rural households declared as getting drinking water from "improved" sources has shown that about 42% of urban and 60% of rural households were actually getting contaminated water. About half of the surveyed anganwadis where small children and pregnant mothers were taken care...

-The Hindu     Over 41 per cent of urban households and 60 per cent of rural households with access to safe water get contaminated water, a report published in the British medical journal, The Lancet, has said. Although 99.6 per cent of urban and over 97 per cent of rural households surveyed had access to safe water, as defined by the United Nations Millennium Development Goal (MDG) target 7c indicator, water was contaminated...

-Deccan Herald   Barely emerging out of the shadows of freak weather, the warning of a weak monsoon will push millions of farmers into dire straits. In the midst of all the noise and muck-slinging that dominates the election campaigns there is bad news on the horizon. No, I am not talking of the possibility of a hung Parliament where the numbers don't add up for any political front, but the possibility of...

-The Indian Express   Political parties must do more than just pay lip service to universal healthcare in their election manifestos. The governance of the public health sector has become more complex than we imagine. To improve overall health, the sector will have to coordinate and collaborate with other sectors, nationally and regionally, and with several stakeholders. There is no sector that does not have an impact (positive or negative) on public health. What...