-Down to Earth   All safe motherhood programmes of the government are focused on institutional deliveries, but health centres are in disarray. Experts suggest ways to reduce deaths during delivery Lal Mohan, a daily wage labourer, has no clue what took his wife's life. Sarita Devi, 25, was expecting her third child, and was on way to a good hospital at Bhagalpur district in Bihar. "She was normal all through the nine months...

-The Business Standard Way back in 1986, Rajiv Gandhi launched the Ganga Action Plan. But years later, after much water (sewage) and money have flowed down the river, it is as bad as it could get. Why are we failing, and what needs to be done differently to clean this and many other rivers? According to recent estimates by the Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB), faecal coliform levels in the mainstream of...

-PTI The condition of government hospitals in Delhi drew a sharp criticism from Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), which, in its report found several glaring shortcomings like unavailability of blood banks in five hospitals. The CAG today painted a sorry state of affairs at government hospitals in the national capital in its report for the fiscal year ending March 2012, which was tabled in Delhi Assembly. The government auditor said that scrutiny of...

-The Times of India Neeraj Banerjee and his family are regular visitors to Nainital. This June, too, the Delhi-based computer engineer made a trip to what he calls his family's favourite tourist spot, nestling in the Kumaon hills at almost 2,000m above sea level. However, Banerjee says all they talked about this time was water — the paucity of it. "With summers being particularly harsh this year, things looked like they...

Absence of preventive measures and affordable and accessible health care leads to nearly 500 encephalitis deaths in Uttar Pradesh. IT is a strange paradox. In a country that aspires to be a superpower and boasts of rapid economic growth, 488 children died in a State, Uttar Pradesh, from encephalitis alone this year. It is nothing less than a national shame and tragedy. In six districts of Bihar, close to 200 children...