-Civil Society Nalgonda (Telangana): Mamatha arrived at the Nalgonda District Hospital atop the fuel tank of her uncle’s motorcycle. She weighed just 650 grammes. She had been wrapped in a small sheet of cellophane and put in some kind of a folder. Her mother at that time was fighting for her own life after the premature delivery in the 28th week of her pregnancy. She had high blood pressure and was bleeding. The...

-The Hindu Confining it to just the Ministry of Rural Development would be the most retrograde step in democratic decentralisation in over a quarter century. If, as The Hindu’s exclusive on Wednesday indicates, Prime Minister Narendra Modi were to close down the Ministry of Panchayati Raj, it would confirm one’s worst fears about his government’s hypocritical approach to grass-roots democracy for grass-roots development. This was a lacuna that was evident in the ‘Gujarat...

At the Labour Line office of Aajeevika Bureau situated at Syphon Chouraha on Bedla Road in Udaipur, Santosh Poonia said that 12,926 calls were received by his office between August 2011 and March 2016, out of which almost 37 percent were payment-related grievance calls. During the same time-span, 2,008 payment-related cases (as received by the Labour Line office) could be settled. Poonia, who is Programme Manager (Legal Education and Aid...

-The Indian Express The children were given milk under the “Amrit Yojana”, a scheme to provide nutrition to young children. Raipur: Two girls, both aged three years, died after consuming milk given to them under a state government scheme in Bijapur district of Chhattisgarh late Monday. Seven more children — two from the same village in Bijapur and five in Janjgir Champa district — were admitted to hospital after they complained of...

-The Hindu No action taken against hospitals or blood banks, says RTI activist. In the last 17 months alone, 2,234 persons across India have been infected with human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) while getting blood transfusions. The maximum number of such cases — 361 — was reported from Uttar Pradesh due to unsafe blood transfusion practices in hospitals. Just last week, a three-year-old boy from Assam’s Kamrup district, admitted to the Gauhati Medical College...