-The Indian Express Yet again, DNA Regulation Bill cleared for introduction in Parliament. Whose DNA will be stored, when is it supposed to be used for reference? What are the concerns, how is government addressing these? On Monday, the Cabinet cleared the DNA Technology (Use and Application) Regulation Bill once again, paving the way for its reintroduction in Parliament. The Bill had been passed by Lok Sabha in January this year,...

-Newslaundry.com Affected families have much in common: low social status, low income, poor access to healthcare, and the non-existent reach of government schemes The countryside in Bihar’s north-western region of Tirhut is in full bloom at this time of the year. One is constantly in the vicinity of mango trees and litchi orchards and a good portion of agricultural land seems fallow. The sun is excessively punishing but it does little to...

  Adolescence is a period when physical and neuro-maturational changes take place in the body of a young girl. Although it is illegal marrying a girl under the age of 18 years as per the Prohibition of Child Marriage Act 2006, adolescent girls in our country are compelled to marry and attain pregnancy that adversely affects well-being and outcomes of both mothers and their children. Latest available data shows that societal norms...

-The Indian Express Last year, in February the first round of the health index was released, which measured the annual and incremental performances of States and UTs for the period 2014-15(base year) to 2015-16 (Reference Year). Kerala has emerged as the top ranking state in the second health index launched by NITI Aayog, while Uttar Pradesh is the worst, reported PTI. The health index is a composite measure of States and...

In a recent blog post, Columbia University professor Arvind Panagariya mentions that the critics of the present Prime Minister of India failed to underscore ‘employment rate’ -- flip side of unemployment rate -- that stood at nearly 94 percent according to the report on Periodic Labour Force Survey 2017-18. A recent article by Dr. Vikas Rawal and Prachi Bansal, however, points out that in order to understand the problem of joblessness...