Unfortunate though it may seem, many Indians only identify with Ladakh because of the popularity of Three Idiots and the progressive school there which Aamir Khan has now gone to assist. We tend to forget that it is part of Jammu and Kashmir because the unrest in the valley obscures everything else. Ladakh is often described as a cold desert, with scanty rainfall, which is why Leh and its environs were...
More »SEARCH RESULT
The Early Kalidasa Syndrome by Utsa Patnaik
Our policymakers would rather let food grains rot than feed the poor. What explains the near-comatose lack of response to a long-brewing crisis of increasing hunger? The most valuable resource that a country has is its people. The poor are not a liability, but an asset; they are the producers of essential goods and services we use, they hold up the sky for us for a pittance of a reward. The...
More »GENDER
KEY TRENDS • Maternal Mortality Ratio for India was 370 in 2000, 286 in 2005, 210 in 2010, 158 in 2015 and 145 in 2017. Therefore, the MMRatio for the country decreased by almost 61 percent between 2000 and 2017 *14 • As per the NSS 71st round, among rural females aged 5-29 years, the main reasons for dropping out/ discontinuance were: engagement in domestic activities, not interested in education, financial constraints and marriage. Among rural males aged...
More »Global Fund seeks India's support for health spending by Ramya Kannan
Michel D. Kazatchkine, executive director of the Global Fund (GF) to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria, arrived in India on Tuesday to get greater Indian support and funding for global health spending ahead of the United Nations Millennium Development Goals (MDG) summit in New York. While he signed agreements with some new partners and promoted community-ownership of projects, Professor Kazatchkine's primary task is to meet top government officials and the Union...
More »UN convenes meeting on access to medical devices in poorer countries
Health experts from more than 100 countries gathered in Bangkok today under the auspices of the United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) to discuss ways to make life-saving medical equipment more accessible to people in developing countries. “The medical device industry holds great promise for public health, sometimes spectacular promise, sometimes seductive promise,” Margaret Chan, the WHO Director-General, told the more than 350 experts meeting in Thailand’s capital. “Health officials and hospital...
More »