-The Business Standard   Policy must target faster growth in labour-intensive sectors It was reported on Wednesday that a sample of large manufacturing companies saw their workforce grow at an average rate of almost three per cent every year over the past decade. Putting aside technical niceties such as the representativeness of the sample, to the extent that the companies covered are mostly market leaders in their respective sectors, this statistic is very...

-Down to Earth   Lancet study says 5.5 million infant deaths in the world go unrecorded Every year, more than 750,000 children in India die before completing the first year of their lives. The number is more than that of any other country in the world. A research led by London School of Hygiene & Tropical Medicine states India recorded 779,000 deaths in 2012. It was followed by Nigeria with 276,000 deaths, Pakistan with...

The latest WHO report entitled World Health Statistics 2014 delineates the performance made on the health front by India vis-à-vis other nations between 1990 and 2012. It also presents the challenges that the new government at the Centre should try to resolve. In India, life expectancy at birth (both sexes, in years) has increased from 58 in 1990 to 66 in 2012. While life expectancy at birth for men rose from 57...

-The Times of India   SHILLONG: In a landmark judgement, the Meghalaya high court has said Bangladeshi nationals who had settled in the state before March 24, 1971, should be treated as Indians and enrolled in the voters' list. The order came on a petition filed by more than 40 Bangladeshi refugees who were denied enrolment in the electoral roll on the grounds that their citizenship was "doubtful". The refugees from Amjong...

-Down to Earth   Delhi High Court exempts four private hospitals from treating the poor for free. Experts fear other hospitals will follow Many a poor patient has benefitted from the Supreme Court's 2011 order which mandates that all private hospitals which received land at a lower price from the government have to treat a CERTain number of people from the economically weaker sections (EWS) for free. Take the case of four-year-old Shagun, born...