-Reuters Tobacco inflicts huge damage on the health of India's people and could be clocking up a death toll of 1.5 million a year by 2020 if more users are not persuaded to kick the habit, an international report said on Thursday. Despite having signed up to a global treaty on tobacco control and having numerous anti-tobacco and smoke-free laws, India is failing to implement them effectively, leaving its people vulnerable to...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The government plans to bring in a regulatory framework to rein in play schools, creches and day care centres' charging exorbitant fees without providing standardized curriculum and learning aids. The policy, which includes implementation and monitoring of early child care and education for children below six years, is likely to be discussed in the Union Cabinet on Thursday. The women and child development (WCD) ministry...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: About 250 million adults consume smokeless tobacco in the 11 countries of the WHO's south-east Asia region, which constitutes 90% of global smokeless tobacco users. India lays claim to 32% men and 18.4% women, who consume smokeless tobacco costing the country $389 million. A study of healthcare costs by Tobacco in India estimated that in 2004, the direct medical costs of treating smokeless tobacco-related diseases in...

-PTI Expressing surprise on the absence of latest official data on malnutrition, a Parliamentary panel has asked the government to come up with a time-bound action plan to reduce under-nutrition and ensure real time flow of information for proper monitoring. "We are surprised to note that in this modern era of information technology, there is no recent official data on malnutrition. What is available is seven years old and outdated...National Family Health...

-PTI WHO today lauded India's efforts in eradicating polio and said the country has not reported a single case of polio in the last 30 months. "You did it. For 30 months you have not got a single case of polio," WHO Director General Margaret Chan said while addressing the meeting of Health Ministers of South-East Asia Region in the presence of President Pranab Mukherjee. She said India achieved the feat even as...