-The Telegraph The decade-long flow of funds from the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation into India’s HIV control efforts will stop from June 2013, a foundation official said today, intensifying fears among sections of health activists about the future of the programme. Avahan was the first large-scale health initiative in India to be supported by the foundation, said to be t he world’s largest philanthropic organisation, and will be the first to...

With the elderly likely to constitute a quarter of India's population by 2050, there is need for a publicly-funded, universal scheme that will overcome destitution among the aged India's social security system is woefully inadequate, when compared even to those in third world economies with no higher per capita incomes. Some States in India have fairly comprehensive social security schemes — notably Kerala, also West Bengal and Tamil Nadu — but...

With the Supreme Court giving its nod reopening the probe into non-filing of proper accounts of election expenditure, vis-à-vis “paid news” against the former Maharashtra Chief Minister Ashok Chavan, the Election Commission has fixed a fresh hearing for May 17. Most probably the EC will decide to have a daily hearing as Chief Election Commissioner S.Y. Quraishi is demitting office on June 10, informed sources said. The issue was first exposed by The Hindu. Campaign advertisements in support...

The recent brouhaha following the release of the poverty headcount ratio has triggered heated discussions with regard to their reliability. While it is very clear that the completeness and the consistency of the statistics are not in question, what is being questioned is the possible fudging of the data to reduce the poverty line. The data has not been fudged, as has been brought out very clearly by many authors....

-Jagran Post In a startling disclosure, the government survey on income and expenditure has revealed that half of the rural population of the country is living in abject poverty. According to the survey, about 60 percent of India's rural population lives on less than Rs 35 a day. A similar situation prevails in underdeveloped countries like Africa. This indicates that our policies are confined to certain areas only. Do our policy...