India earned another dubious distinction in child mortality with the highest number of deaths of children under-five-years of age, according to a UNICEF report released in September 2012. India's toll is higher than the deaths in Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo and Pakistan put together. Globally, almost 19,000 children under five years of age die every day across the world a quarter of which is in India alone. India accounted for...

-The Indian Express Full Planning Commission chaired by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today approved 12th Five Year Plan (2012-17) document that proposes to lower annual average economic growth rate target during the period to 8.2 per cent from 9 per cent envisaged earlier in view of fragile recovery. "The Full Planning Commission approved the draft 12th Five Year Plan document, subject to certain suggestions made in the meeting," Planning Commission Deputy Chairman...

-The Hindu In an atmosphere of mistrust of the government, only an independent safety regulatory mechanism can counter the scaremongering against civilian nuclear power I work at an institution funded by the Department of Atomic Energy (which, however, does no nuclear research: the DAE funds a wide variety of institutions and areas in science). About a year ago, I had an e-mail from a journalist who wondered why scientists (including colleagues at...

-The Hindustan Times India has earned the dubious distinction of reporting most under-five child mortality in 2011 in the world, says a new United Nations global estimate on child mortality. The United Nations Children Fund report to be released in New York on Thursday says that 16.55 lakh children below the age of five died in India in 2011, almost six times more than the similar figure for China. About 2.49 under five deaths...

-The United Nations A new United Nations report advocates that governments use fiscal and labour market policies to reduce income inequality, maintaining that this not only leads to social benefits but will spur economic growth and development. Produced by the UN Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD), the Trade and Development Report 2012 says that recent experience, especially in Latin America and other developing countries, suggests that progressive taxation and rising public...