-The Hindu Diagnosis is complicated due to challenges associated with sample collection While detection of tuberculosis (TB) in children remains a challenge, it has now emerged that Multi-Drug Resistant (MDR) TB is higher among children than expected. This has been described as a “worrying trend” by the Union Health Ministry. As many as 5,500 of over 76,000 children tested in nine cities have been diagnosed with TB. Nine per cent of these paediatric...

-Livemint.com Crop insurance has failed to provide much-needed relief to farmers from destitution With one farmer committing suicide every half-an-hour, the number of farmers who have ended their lives as per official records in India is estimated at over 300,000 over the past two decades. These numbers do not include suicides by agricultural labourers, though they too are victims of the agrarian crisis. As each death affects at least the immediate family...

-The Financial Express A half-dozen years ago, I participated in a conference on water resource challenges in India. I remember Upmanu Lall, professor at Columbia University, graphically and bluntly making the point that Punjab’s water table was not far from collapse. This has been known for years, and there have been feeble efforts to deal with the problem, but they have been far short of what is needed. My own understanding...

-The Hindu Jaipur: The Rajasthan government has signed a memorandum of understanding with three funding agencies to improve the nutritional status of children in 50 blocks of 20 districts. The new MoU was signed by the National Health Mission’s (NHM) State unit and the State Women and Child Development Department with the Tata Trust, Action Contre La Faim (Action Against Hunger) of France and the Global Alliance for Improved Nutrition (GAIN) on...

-The Indian Express Both the EC and the Law Ministry have been asked to furnish their written replies at the next meeting. New Delhi: AMID THE demands for State Funding of elections, the Election Commission (EC) has categorically told a parliamentary panel that it is “not in favour” of the move. It has, instead, called for “radical changes” in the “provisions regarding receipt of funds” and expenditure by political parties to...