-Frontline DAVID SANDERS, Professor Emeritus and founding Director of the School of Public Health at the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in South Africa, is a specialist paediatrician with postgraduate qualifications in public health. One of the founders of the global public health movement, he has over 30 years' experience in health policy and programme development in Zimbabwe and South Africa, having advised governments as well as organisations such as...

-The Hindu More than 800 NGO representatives walk out of the climate talks Warsaw: The developed countries must step up to the plate to come true on their existing commitments to fight climate change, said Jayanthi Natarajan, Indian Environment Minister, while addressing the U.N. climate negotiations. "There is a huge ambition gap between what developed country have pledged and what is required by science and their historical responsibilities. The irony is that developing...

-The Hindu The Cabinet will take a call on the shape of a new global agreement that India would push for at the for the upcoming climate change talks and over the next two years till it is signed in 2015. The Union Cabinet is likely to decide the non-negotiables for the upcoming climate change negotiations on Thursday. The Cabinet will take a call on the shape of the new global agreement...

-The Hindu After a long and painful period of neglect, India promises to devote attention to the issue of preparing all children for primary schooling. The draft National Early Childhood Care and Education (ECCE) policy aims to end the "current laissez faire situation" that has led to the mushrooming of expensive crèches, play schools, nursery schools and so on that adhere to no particular standard. On the other hand, there is...

-Frontline The National Advisory Council recommendations seem to be making a strong case for a major role for the private sector in the delivery of health care. THE recommendations for universal health coverage drawn up by the National Advisory Council (NAC), headed by United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, push for public-private partnerships (PPPs) in the health delivery system but not for any inbuilt mechanisms for accountability. The NAC also...