-Economic and Political Weekly The continuing deaths of infants and children due to malnutrition in Attappady, the only tribal block in Kerala, reflects the state government's apathy towards addressing issues germane to the tribals residing in the region. Manikandan A.D (alungal09@gmail.com) is a PhD candidate at School of International Relations and Politics, Mahatma Gandhi University, Kottayam, Kerala, and ICSSR Institutional Doctoral Fellow at the Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), Nizamiah...

-Outlook After a row over implementation of a expert committee report, the Centre has ruled out appointment of any more panel to study Western Ghats in an attempt to address concerns of the six states through which the ecologically-sensitive hills traverse. Environment Minister M Veerappa Moily said the states concerned should appoint committees respectively to assess the kind of activities that could be allowed in the tract. After the committees submit their...

-The Times of India Silently, the warp and weft of Indian families is changing, perhaps forever. Women are getting married later, they are having babies later and the gap between successive children is getting larger. Put this together with the fact that the average number of children born to a woman continues to decline, and children survive more than in the past, and you can see that families are being much...

-The Hindu Goa and Manipur may have knocked Kerala off the pedestal, but at 12 deaths among children less than one year of age per 1,000 live births, Kerala still has an enviably low infant mortality rate (IMR); it is far below India's average of 42. Yet, for years, the southern State has been unable to reduce the mortality rate further to a single-digit figure to become comparable with the...

-The Hindu Adoption of high production technology and cultivation of high yielding varieties have put tremendous pressure on soil nutrient reserve in the country leading to a great imbalance in nutrient status in the soil. A large chunk of soil in the country has been rendered deficient in micronutrients, which is one of the major reasons that crops have stopped responding to fertilizers, according to Dr. M Anandaraj, Director of Indian Institute...