The Delhi Jal Board, MCD, NDMC and other such agencies will have to ensure minimum safety and health standard for sewerage and other unorganised workers by giving them free medical treatment, thanks to a Supreme Court verdict. Families of workers employed by civic agencies such as the Delhi Jal Board and Municipal Corporation of Delhi will henceforth be entitled to immediate ex-gratia payment of Rs 1 lakh. A bench of justices GS...

The Mumbai blasts have again brought into focus the health infrastructure in Bihar, especially the state capital, and raised questions on whether the city is equipped to deal with emergency situations. The intensive care unit (ICU) at Patna Medical College and Hospital — the premier tertiary care centre in the state — itself needs emergency treatment owing to the poor condition of infrastructure and logistics. Most of its equipment are defunct...

If you are born in Narendrapur village of Murshidabad, you’ve to be tough to survive. Even a two-day-old boy knows that. Monirul Mondal lives, defeating the best efforts of two government hospitals, a private nursing home and several doctors to kill him. Anarul and Marjina Bibi’s son, born after 10 years of marriage, lives, beating the heavy odds on his death over a 279km passage, partly in a trekker and the...

-Outlook   The secret behind the Ganga’s ability to self-rejuvenate its waters continues to elude discovery In 2009, when C.S. Nautiyal, now the director of Lucknow’s National Botanical Research Institute, spiked a fresh Ganga water sample with an infectious strain of Escherichia coli to test the Ganga’s reported self-healing qualities, he found that the bacteria lasted no longer than three days. He repeated the experiment with a 16-year-old sample of Ganga...

-IANS   Besides damaging environment, e-waste also endangers human health . E-waste, being a factor in oxidative stress, can trigger cardiovascular disease, DNA damage and possibly cancer, claims a recent study. E-waste, or electronic waste, describes end-of-life goods such as computers, TV, printers, and mobile phones. A large proportion of worldwide e-waste is exported to China. Due to the crude recycling process, many pollutants, such as persistent organic pollutants and heavy metals, are released from...