-The Business Standard Make schemes mobile and portable, by focusing on people and not products India spends close to four per cent of its GDP on an alphabet soup of welfare schemes and subsidies - it has become a welfare state before becoming a developed state. Despite its significant costs, India's welfare system is neither comprehensive nor very effective - subject to huge leakages and corruption, and not well knit into...

-The United Nations While child survival rates have increased dramatically since 1990, one million babies each year do not see their second day of life, many succumbing to complications during labour and delivery that could be easily prevented with simple, cost effective interventions, according to a report released today by the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF). The 2014 Committing to Child Survival: A Promise Renewed progress report - the second in a...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Health and Family Welfare Dr Harsh Vardhan, Union Health Minister, has said that the government is confident of reducing the newborn (birth to 28 days) mortality rate to single digit long before the 2030 target date. The present death rate is 29 per 1,000 live births. For this are required simple, cost-effective interventions before and immediately after delivery. Inaugurating the Indian Newborn Action Plan (INAP) here today,...

-The United Nations If all women in poor countries completed primary education, child mortality would drop by one-sixth saving almost one million lives, the United Nations educational agency today reported highlighting the links between schooling and achieving a new set of sustainable development targets. "The benefits of education permeate all walks of life right from the moment of birth," said Irina Bokova, Director-General of the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO)...

-Frontline   The United Nation's MDG report 2014 shows that despite India's significant economic progress, around one-third of the world's extremely poor people reside in the country. IT is raining development goals. As the period for the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) draws to a close next year, discussions around these goals and what should replace them have reached fever pitch, with national governments, international organisations and representatives of civil society participating in them. Of...