-The Times of India First the good news: Indians are living much longer than they did 40 years ago. The Life Expectancy (LE) at birth of an average Indian male has gone up by 15 years between 1970 and 2010, while that of an Indian woman by 18 years. An average Indian man can expect to live for as long as 63 years, while an Indian woman can live 4.5 years longer than...

-Kafila.org Even though Hiamchal Pradesh voted on November 4, Gujarat has been hogging all the limelight. The election in Gujarat is only in the third week of December. Gujarat captures our political imagination as a ‘role model state’ whereas Hiamchal Pradesh is just in our tourism agenda as a top holiday destination. It is hard for anyone to notice Himachal as a political entity among the big brothers like Uttar Pradesh,...

-The Times of India Delhi has recorded the country's lowest death rate among major states. Around 4.3 people die here per 1,000 population at any given time as against Odisha, which has highest death rate at 8.5. In comparison, Maharashtra recorded a death rate of 6.3 (lower than the national average of 7.1), Tamil Nadu (7.4) and West Bengal (6.2). The Registrar General of India's (RGI) latest death rate data sent to the Union...

-The Telegraph People who stop smoking before the age of 40 may on average gain an extra 10 years of Life Expectancy, according to a study that researchers say has relevance to India where people typically quit only after falling ill. A British study described as the world’s largest to assess the hazards of smoking and the benefits of quitting has shown that quitting before 40 can help avoid excess mortality observed...

-The Hindu Women continue to be invisible to planners, despite their high levels of contribution to the national economy, says a UN Women paper on women and forests Some of the present policies in forest management are detrimental to the poor, particularly women, states a UN Women paper by NC Saxena, member National Advisory Council, even as he suggests changes that could ameliorate their condition. Despite economic growth, gender inequalities in “critical human development...