According to the Maharashtra government's own figures, 18,486 children in the age group of 0-6 years have died of malnutrition this year alone (Jan-August 2011). The figure is quite high, say health ministry sources. In 2010, 12,792 children had died of hunger and malnutrition during the same period. But this year, 5,694 more babies than last year have starved to death. Most of the dead babies are adivasi children. The...

-The Hindu   Faced with strong reactions to its affidavit on the poverty line estimates filed in the Supreme Court on Monday, the Planning Commission may re-visit the issue and, if necessary, file an amendment in the court. Sources in the Commission indicated that another committee of experts was likely to be set up to dispel the “confusion” and arrive at a more realistic estimate of poverty numbers that were “multi-dimensional” and to...

On one day — one minute — in the next month, the world's seven billionth human resident will be born. The United Nations is marking the occasion on the last day of October with what it describes it as an “opportunity” to promote “seven billion actions” for environmental sustainability and women's education, estimating that the world's population will top out at nine or 10 billion mid-century before declining as economic...

-The Times of India   The Gujarat high court (HC) on Thursday asked the state government to specify what steps it has taken to implement the schemes that are introduced to make the public distribution system (PDS) effective. This status report is in connection with an order passed last year. In 2010, the HC had asked the state government to implement various schemes like Antyodaya Anna Yojana, Targeted Public Distribution System, Annapurna Scheme,...

It will be offered as National Health Package for all common conditions Strongly recommending a re-configuration of the entire health system where the government will have a major role to play, a high level expert group on Universal Health Coverage (UHC) has proposed making health care an entitlement to every citizen. The group suggested that health care be offered as a National Health Package (NHP) covering all common conditions and high-impact health...