-Civil Society News New Delhi: In 1974, Dr Samir Chaudhuri, a paediatrician working in Kolkata’s slums, founded Child in Need Institute (CINI) to tackle the many dimensions of child malnutrition. It struck him at the time that malnutrition wasn’t just a clinical problem but a complex phenomenon rooted in gender issues. Over the years, led by Dr Chaudhuri, CINI developed deep understanding of the social, economic and political underpinnings of malnutrition...

-The Indian Express Decades of mismanagement have hobbled India’s mental health programme An event commemorating World Mental Health week opened at the WHO in Geneva this week. At a key session, the Disease Control Priorities project released its recommendations to governments to address the burden of mental disorders. This was timely for India, for few countries have witnessed so many high-profile debates related to mental health while ignoring the centrality of mental health...

-The Indian Express The steady state efficiency of healthcare needs to be raised so that crises like this one can be avoided. In any free society where terrible wrongs exist, some are guilty; all are responsible.” While these words of Rabbi Abraham Joshua Heschel ring true for many social and political ills that appall us, they are also a timely reminder of our collective responsibility to correct the pathetic state of...

-The Hindustan Times Bhopal: Madhya Pradesh is the worst place to be born in India - and it has been so for more than a decade. For 11th year in a row, the state has registered the highest infant mortality rate in the country, says the latest Sample Registration System report for 2013 released on Sunday by the Registrar General and Census Commissioner of India. Infant mortality rate is the number of deaths...

-Live Mint Melinda Gates says India is closer than ever to the goal of eradicating poverty and improving access to health for all New Delhi: Philanthropist Melinda Gates, co-founder of the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation and one of the most influential women in the world, maintains that India is closer than ever to the goal of eradicating poverty and improving access to health for all. In their annual letter, published...