-BBC   India has "never been closer" to wiping out polio, India's health minister has declared as he marked World Polio Day. There have been no new cases for more than nine months, making it the longest polio-free period since the global eradication campaign was launched. The only case reported this year was in the state of West Bengal in January. There were 39 cases reported over a similar period in 2010. India is one...

The pointlessness of the debate over Indian measures of poverty becomes clear when we look at the country’s human development record. If per capita real incomes have risen so well during the last two decades since reforms were introduced, surely that should mean better lives for most Indians. Forget about catching up with China, there is increasing evidence of India falling behind Bangladesh in terms of key human development indicators...

Three of Pune’s practices under the Right to Information (RTI) Act, 2005 will act as role models for the country. This was decided in the recently concluded chief information commissioner’s (CIC) conference in New Delhi. Special appeal disposal programme, open days at government offices and the unique RTI library at the Pune Municipal Corporation (PMC) are the three practices, which will be exemplified as role models for the country along...

With institutional healthcare being prohibitively expensive, more women in rural India are choosing to deliver at home than in hospitals and healthcare facilities, says a new report brought out by Chittorgarh-based NGO, Prayas, in partnership with Oxfam India. The 'Study of the trends in out-of-pocket payments in healthcare during National Rural Health Mission period (2005-2010)', released on October 12 in the national capital, was conducted across five Indian states - Assam,...

Directs Centre to submit detailed report on project cost and land acquisition The ambitious river linking project, connecting rivers of peninsular India with  Himalayan rivers through canals, has hit a roadblock after the Supreme Court's observation that the project would burden the Union government because of escalating costs. While environmentalists and activists have welcomed the order seeking detailed report on the project's cost, the National Water Development Agency (NWDA) has commenced...