Muslims, SCs, STs reflect better social indices, closer to national averages Early in the morning, Mohammad Nadeem, a 25-year-old ‘pakka adati’, big wholesaler, at one of Muzaffarnagar’s fruit and vegetable mandis, briskly sets about selling carrots and oranges. As he expertly sifts through sacks of fresh produce, it’s difficult to picture him hawking peanuts by the roadside. But for five years in this bustling western Uttar Pradesh mandi, Nadeem’s store...

The use of tracker technology to zero in on the misuse of diagnostic techniques for sex determination has evoked mixed reactions. ONE of the least discussed issues in the context of the data thrown up by Census 2011 is the worrisome decline in the child sex ratio (CSR) and the not-too-perfect implementation of the Pre-Conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex Selection) Act, or PCPNDT Act. There is reason to...

-The Times of India   "The cold, not cancer, may kill me" - the TOI story on the pitiable condition of patients and relatives braving the biting cold in wait for a bed in All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) drew an anguished reaction from the Supreme Court, which on Friday asked the Delhi government to urgently set up a night shelter either inside or close to the prestigious hospital. A bench...

What is our national aim? To my mind, our national aim must be to make India a highly prosperous country for its citizens, and for that it is necessary to have a high degree of industrialization.  Even setting up and running a single primary school requires a lot of money, e.g. for buying land, erecting the school building and providing for the recurrent expenditure for salaries of teachers, staff, etc. We...

Lack of trained manpower main hurdle, says health secretary More than a year after rolling out the national programme for prevention and control of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular diseases and stroke, the Union Ministry of health and family welfare is still struggling to kick-start cancer screening in the district hospitals in the country. Health secretary P K Pradhan says lack of trained manpower is the biggest hurdle in starting the screening for different...