-The Hindu Lax monitoring, poor public engagement and inadequate training to vaccinators have dealt a serious blow to the crucial pentavalent immunisation programme The Pentavalent vaccine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's latest addition to the immunisation programme, has run into a storm. The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Ministry asking why the vaccine should not be banned in the country. The vaccine is no stranger to controversy. A...

-The Indian Express In Gorakhpur, small successes in understanding - and conquering - the killer disease of children are undercut by a wily virus and administrative bottlenecks Gorakhpur: On August 18, five-year-old Vishal spent the evening playing with friends in Vanjhai village in Gorakhpur district's Bhathat block. He came home irritable, with a slight fever. His mother and grandmother gave him a little milk and sent him to bed. They were not...

-The Hindustan Times After months of debate on whether juveniles accused of heinous crimes like rape and murder should be tried as adults, the government, it seems, has finally come around to the view that the issue of graded punishment should be considered. According to news reports, the women and child development ministry, after discussions, has agreed to the view that juveniles who are between 16-18 years committing heinous crimes should...

-The Indian Express Bassikalan (Muzaffarnagar, UP): Rashid Ali was born in a family of relative affluence - he was one of the few MusLIMs in Lakh village who had a farm, cattle, a roof over his head, and food aplenty. Ordinarily, with the sugarcane resting in the fields, only to be cut a month later, September was a month of leisure. The rise and fall of the sun didn't dictate his...

-The Telegraph Bhubaneswar: The state government will begin a search for more bauxite mines in the state from the first week of November. The move comes in the wake of the state's inability to provide bauxite from Niyamgiri hills to Vedanta's Lanjigarh alumina refinery in Kalahandi district. Director of the state geology department P.K. Ojha said: "There is a great demand for bauxite as Odisha is witnessing a rapid growth in industrialisation, particularly...