Governments rarely shy away from showering farm sops but Karnataka’s BJP government hopes to reap gains with a debatable claim: that its policies have helped reduce farmer suicides. State agriculture minister Umesh Katti recently reeled off in the Assembly suicide figures (see chart) that show a declining trend since 2008-09, when the B.S. Yeddyurappa cabinet took power. The assertion that the slide is because of the government’s efforts follows an agriculture...

Save the Children, an NGO has called for greater investment in female health workers as essential to saving mothers' and children's lives. “Every year, close to two million children die before their fifth birthday, and around 67,000 women die annually from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth — but investment in women as community health workers can play a major role in dramatically reducing these figures,” said a statement issued by...

India faces the challenge of inappropriate use of antibiotics while Bharat copes with poor access to treatment, resulting in a policy conundrum and inaction. India was recently in the news for the wrong reasons. The serious threat posed by the newly discovered microbe, NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo--lactamase-1), resistant to many antibiotics, triggered alarm and panic. Predictions that the country will not meet the millennium development goal for child mortality caused dismay....

Social priorities have received scant fiscal attention There is good reason to feel let down by this year’s budget for the advancement of social sectors. The disappointment is more given that the Union finance minister opened his speech by stating that “we are reaching the end of a remarkable fiscal year” and followed it up by immediate assertions that “growth in 2010-11 has been swift and broad-based”, that “the economy...

A recent advertisement by the Bihar government to hand over the implementation of MGNREGA to non-government organisations has attracted the state’s attention. About four months ago, the state was asked by the Centre to withdraw a similar move. The state officials are now studying the tender document made public by the Bihar government for MNREGA and Indira Awas Yojana to counter the objections of the Union Ministry of Rural Development. The ministry...