-The Telegraph The Union urban development ministry has proposed three new taxes on private vehicle owners: on vehicle purchases, petrol and insurance. The aim is to fund public Transport in cities and deter the use of private vehicles The Rs 40,000 crore that the ministry proposes to raise annually through the “green surcharge”, “green cess” and “urban Transport tax” is to go to a national urban Transport fund that will finance Transport schemes. Urban...

-PTI A government sub-committee looking into probable sources of funds for urban Transport projects in the 12th Plan has suggested the creation of a national fund, resource for which can be generated through taxes on vehicles and petrol consumption.  The recent report of the Sub-Committee on Financing Urban Infrastructure in the 12th Plan said investments to the tune of 87,000 crore were required in the Five Year Plan duration.  The huge investment needs...

Less than two in 10 women in India received medical attention by a qualified professional in 2010 while delivering at home. Contrary to popular belief, fewer women in urban India received medical attention while delivering at home than rural India - 10.8% against 16.2%. Nearly 1 in 4 births overall were attended by "untrained functionaries" - varying from as high as 53.5% in Jharkhand to as low as 0.2% in...

Each time 25 year old Salma takes her one year old son Zubair to the Batla Clinic (a private clinic in Delhi) for a shot of the DPT, the cost of Transportation and the vaccine adds up to approximately Rs.500.   When it is time for Zubair to take the next immunization dose, Salma may find that the expenses have entirely spiraled out of her reach. New vaccines and expensive brands of baby...

In a move that could end a face-off within the government on the proposed food security Bill, the food ministry has decided to make everyone, except the so-called creamy layer, eligible for receiving state-subsidized foodgrains. Those who can afford to pay market prices will be kept out of the intended list of beneficiaries through the introduction of the exclusion criteria in the Bill, which will also seek to allocate foodgrains on...