If you are not serious about non-communicable diseases, then this single piece of information is enough to scare you -- during 2019, almost two-third of deaths in India occurred due to such diseases i.e., NCDs.   The newly released report by World Health Organization shows that out of the total deaths in 2019 in our country, about 28 percent were caused by cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), 10 percent by cancers, 12 percent by chronic...

-Newsclick.in Funds squeeze causes 14-17% refusals every year. The rural jobs guarantee scheme has emerged as a lifesaver for millions of Indians as they struggle with relentless unemployment. But official data shows that a very large number of job seekers are being turned away and not given work. In the first six months of the current financial year (April to October 2022) nearly 1.5 crore applicants for work were refused work.  This situation...

-TheWire.in Methodological innovation is required to re-evaluate and investigate how backwardness is defined. The 11 criteria the Mandal Commission specified could act as a framework. The passing of the 124th Amendment Bill of the Indian constitution on January 14, 2019, made the way for a 10% ‘economically weaker SECtions’ or EWS quota in (a) educational institutions run by the Union government and private institutions (except those managed by minorities), and (b) in...

-Deccan Herald As is the case with all indices that try to capture a complex reality in one single number, the GHI also suffers from a number of limitations When India was ranked 107 out of 121 countries on the Global Hunger Index (GHI), the Ministry of Women and Child Development 'rejected' the ranking, claiming there were serious methodological flaws in how the research was conducted. Time and again, the Indian government...

-The Hindu 65% of Indians and a third of the global population had higher PM2.5 exposures during the lockdown, largely attributed to biomass cooking activity During COVID-19 lockdowns, many countries observed historic improvements in ambient air quality. Our new study shows that despite the historic improvements in ambient air quality, PM2.5 exposures increased for 65% of Indians and a third of the global population during the lockdown, largely attributed to biomass cooking...