In a jaw-dropping move, the Uttar Pradesh government has converted 2,367 sq km of the countryside along the Yamuna Expressway, connecting Greater Noida with Agra , into urban land. In a country where policy to create new towns has not ventured beyond the 50 sq km allowed as the maximum area of a Special Economic Zone, this is welcome. But not so, the manner in which the changed land-use is going...

An efficient delivery system is essential to keep up the achievements made by Kerala in the social sector over the decades, Chief Minister V S Achuthanandan said on Saturday. "Kerala has achieved remarkable growth in life index compared to many other Indian states. Now it is important that these achievements are maintained by improving the delivery system," he said, inaugurating an international conference on Reaching out to people: Achieving Millennium Development...

Social exclusion of children belonging to marginalised groups and barriers to children's access to their rights-based entitlements were highlighted as crucial issues confronting the society at a workshop on children's rights here recently. Activists said children being forced to work as labourers was an “abysmal failure” of all institutions.The day-long workshop was organised jointly by Save the Children, Prayatna, Society for All Round Developemnt (SARD), Consumer Unity and Trust Society...

Awards compensation of Rs.5 lakh for woman's death due to absence of medical officerEstablishing primary health centres (PHCs) in rural pockets and classifying them as 24- hour maternity hospitals will be of no use unless the government makes sure that doctors/medical officers are available there to attend to emergencies, the Madras High Court has said.Justice N. Paul Vasanthakumar made the observation while directing the Director of Primary Health Services to...

South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)  However the 2011 United...