There can be little quarrel with the argument that India requires a comprehensive policy to prevent sex selection as put forward by National Advisory Council members Farah Naqvi and A.K. Shiva Kumar in The Hindu (“India & the sex selection conundrum,” January 24, 2012). That the use of sex selection technologies to abort female foetuses is linked to the increasing devaluation and disempowerment of women is well known. It is...

-Press Information Bureau As per the latest Sample Registration System (SRS) bulletin, December 2011 released by the Registrar General of India (RGI), it is noted that  Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has dropped further by  3 points from 50 to 47 infants deaths per 1000 live births during 2010.  The IMR for rural areas has dropped by 4 points from 55 to 51 infant deaths per 1000 live births while the Urban...

-The Times of India   The filing of nomination by a tribal woman for the panchayat samiti polls at Gadakujang in Jagatsinghpur district, the epicenter of the anti-Posco agitation, has sparked fresh controversy over the presence of tribals in the area. Posco Pratirodhaka Sangram Samiti (PPSS) general secretary Sishir Mohapatra said, "The decision of Meena Hembram and Sara Das has belied the state government's claims that the area doesn't have any tribal population."...

Residents rushing to government hospitals in the state capital for urgent healthcare are often greeted by cigarette smoke and tobacco stains on the premises. Traders and visitors merrily violate Section 6(b) of the Anti-Tobacco Act, 2003, that bans the sale and consumption of tobacco products within 100 yards of hospitals and health institutions. The Telegraph visited three hospitals in the state capital today and found rules being blown away with the smoke. IGIMS Squatters...

Behave well, step out of jail. Select inmates of Tihar jail can now work outside the high-security walls of Asia’s biggest prison, provided, of course, they have not violated jail manuals and their conduct has been good. The inmates will have to come back to their cells at night. The move to allow well-behaved prisoners to work outside the jail complex follows a recent nod from the Delhi government to a rehabilitation plan...