-The Economic Times   CBI carried out searches at 10 places in and around Lucknow over the weekend as part of its probe into alleged irregularities in the National Rural Health Mission programme in Uttar Pradesh. Searches were carried out in offices of NGOs which had been tasked with running NRHM programmes.  Officers of the investigating agency were busy assessing details of seizures made during the searches. This was the second round of...

It has to be but a means to development, not an end in itself Is India doing marvellously well, or is it failing terribly? Depending on whom you speak to, you could pick up either of those answers with some frequency. One story, very popular among a minority but a large enough group—of Indians who are doing very well (and among the media that cater largely to them)—runs something like...

Absence of preventive measures and affordable and accessible health care leads to nearly 500 encephalitis deaths in Uttar Pradesh. IT is a strange paradox. In a country that aspires to be a superpower and boasts of rapid economic growth, 488 children died in a State, Uttar Pradesh, from encephalitis alone this year. It is nothing less than a national shame and tragedy. In six districts of Bihar, close to 200 children...

Encephalitis Eradication Movement planning questionnaire Furious residents of encephalitis-hit eastern Uttar Pradesh have said they intend to make the Central and State governments' poor public health policies an election issue when the State goes to the polls next year. Eminent paediatrician R.N. Singh told The Hindu that the newly formed Encephalitis Eradication Movement — set up in the midst of a devastating epidemic that has claimed over 500 lives, mainly of children...

-The Hindustan Times   The Allahabad High Court verdict on Noida and Greater Noida land acquisition cases has fuelled hopes of a better deal among the farmers of Yamuna Expressway, the third industrial development authority in Gautam Budh Nagar district. Many of the 30-odd villages along the Noida-Agra toll road have moved court, seeking increased cash relief, regularisation of abadi land and allotment of developed plots. In the first phase, the high court had...