-The Shillong Times   Lack of awareness on the oral hygiene in the state coupled with excessive intake of tobacco has gave way to high dental-related diseases like oral cancer. People are less concerned about dental health and even those living in the urban areas lacked proper knowledge on this health related issue and this poor oral hygiene can result to cancer, heart disease and other ailments. “The scenario of oral hygiene in the...

Just months after the 1984 gas leak at Union Carbide's plant here, the Indian government agreed to the 'terms' set by the company on compensation to be paid to victims, a Right to Information (RTI) activist has claimed. Not only that, the government treated the world's worst industrial disaster as a 'railway accident'. 'We have obtained top secret documents dated Feb 28 and March 5, 1985, that show that Union Carbide...

-Live Mint   As United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi prepares to intervene next week in the great national debate about who is poor, she might want to visit north-eastern Mumbai to see how the poorest are not even classified as such and how a giant government scheme to save their children from malnutrition is failing. The nauseating stench from a mountain of garbage greets a visitor to Rafi Nagar at the base...

-The Economic Times   When it comes to Indian women, the picture is largely unchanged; depressingly so, going by the World Development Report 2012, released by the Bank on Wednesday. The latest report focusing on Gender Equality and Development makes dismal reading. No doubt the lot of women in India has improved over the years but not commensurately with the progress made by their country. As a result, women today might be better...

-The Business Standard   Young women in India are much better off than their mothers, but they fare much worse than their counterparts in many developing countries when it comes to the physical survival rate of women and participation in labour force, says a report by the World Bank. The World Development Report titled ‘Gender Equality and Development’ looks at gender inequality as not just a moral but also an economic issue. The report...