-The Hindu     Enhancing the basket of contraceptive choices can reduce maternal mortality rate, says a family planning review Family planning has made a silent comeback in the national discourses. This time, focussing more on concomitant improvement in the health of the people rather than limiting the number of children. India had changed its strategy on family planning in 2010 with the other developing countries from that of merely reducing population to that of...

-The Hindustan Times Far from the neatly trimmed lawns of India Gate that so often reverberate with cries for justice, far also from the corridors of power where ministries recently squabbled over the right age for consensual sex, lie 197 districts - yes 197, read the figure again - where children are regularly abused. In these districts -- all ridden by conflict -- words like illegal detention, arbitrary arrests, sexual violence, torture...

-The Hindu About two lakh from Odisha working in brick kilns live in sub-human conditions Ranga Reddy district: Birubak and his wife Varanasi, together with their five-year-old daughter Seema are paid just Rs. 600 to Rs. 800 a week. Hailing from Odisha, they have a 14-hour work-day that starts at 4 a.m. They just have time to eat the little food that Varanasi can prepare, wash utensils and grab just two to four...

-The Hindu   ‘We have drafted a Bill to deal with violence against women' Berlin: India on Thursday found itself once again in the dock on its high maternal and child mortality rates. The embarrassment happened in full view of the world press which had assembled to hear Manmohan Singh and Angela Merkel on the outcomes of the Indo-German Inter-Governmental Consultations. Replying to a specific question by a German journalist, the Prime Minister admitted...

-The Economic Times The recent patent rulings in India may get frequently challenged in international courts if the government yields to the European Union's demand of including matters related to intellectual property in the investors-state dispute mechanism in their proposed trade pact, health activist groups have warned. An investor-state dispute resolution mechanism typically allows foreign investors to sue countries for compensation if national laws, policies, court rulings of the country infringe upon...