Urban India's greatest comforts are the cause of a super-size health problem: obesity. Easy access to high-calorie packaged foods, sedentary lifestyles and a predilection for gizmos have resulted in almost 70% Indians in mega-cities such as Mumbai, Delhi, Bangalore or Chennai being overweight or obese, says a new multi-city survey. The profiling of 46,000 urban Indians-all of whom have access to the internet-showed that 49% were obese or had a...

In the gathering gloom of slowing growth and political drift, comes some good news to brighten up the festival season. The latest Human Development Report, released today, shows that “inclusive growth” — the mantra of the entire political establishment — may not be just a mere slogan. Socially and economically weaker sections, like Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Muslims, are finally catching up with the rest of the country on important...

-IANS   India's mammoth exercise to issue a unique identification (UID) number to each of its 1.2 billion population has attracted the attention of many nations, and diplomats got a glimpse of what changes in governance could be brought about from the project's pioneer Nandan Nilekani himself.  Nilekani told the 100 odd diplomats from several embassies based in the capital Wednesday that the UID Authority of India's effort was to provide an instrument...

-The Times of India   HRD minister Kapil Sibal on Wednesday expressed concern about the failure of big states in implementing the Right to Education Act. He was speaking at the state education ministers' conference on chalking out a community mobilization programme for RTE. "It will be a historic failure, if we have passed the Act but not implemented." Sibal said. So far, 20 states have notified RTE rules. However, big states like...

-Kashmir Observer   New Delhi’s claims of the AFSPA not standing in the way of justice for victims of forces’ atrocities in Kashmir have been exposed further by civil society activism squeezing incriminating data out of the government.    With public organisations asserting almost 8000 enforced disappearances among innumerably more human rights violations at the hands of the central armed forces and the state police in Kashmir in the past two decades, the state...