-The Hindu About two lakh from Odisha working in brick kilns live in sub-human conditions Ranga Reddy district: Birubak and his wife Varanasi, together with their five-year-old daughter Seema are paid just Rs. 600 to Rs. 800 a week. Hailing from Odisha, they have a 14-hour work-day that starts at 4 a.m. They just have time to eat the little food that Varanasi can prepare, wash utensils and grab just two to four...

-The Times of India LUCKNOW: The state nutrition mission, approved by the state cabinet here on Monday, will begin with 41 high-focus districts. These districts, say officials in the state C, account for high rate of malnutrition. The list includes Gorakhpur, Kushinagar, Deoria, Ballia, Siddharthnagar, Bahraich, Barabanki, Shravasti, Gonda and Balrampur besides the Bundelkhand region. Officials said the state may look forward to the formal launch of State Nutrition Mission anytime. The...

-The Hindu Around 200 survivors of the Bhopal gas disaster held demonstrations in front of the Dow Chemical's office in Vikroli in suburban Mumbai on Tuesday, demanding that the company take up the criminal, civilian and environmental liability of Union Carbide, which they now own. The demonstrators said they were protesting against Dow Chemical's continuing business in hazardous chemicals when the survivors were dying in Bhopal and the next generation was facing...

-The Hindu Well before the Supreme Court rejected Novartis' application for patent for Glivec (Gleevec in the U.S.), drawing attention to the dichotomy of generic and patented drugs, activists have been demanding access to expensive drugs used in the treatment of cancer, hepatitis C and serious HIV. Trastuzumab is one such, used in the treatment of HER2+ type of breast cancer, which affects about one in four patients with the disease. Rough...

-The Hindu In its latest form, the National Food Security Bill, 2013 promises to address the extreme irony of an ambitious nation holding mountains of food in storage, while masses of its people are undernourished or even starving. The right to food is finally on the threshold of being legislated. Every step taken to widen the coverage of food security schemes is an advance. Yet, the empirical truth is that...