-Down to Earth TB programme GRAPpling with lack of funds; weak enforcement of standards another problem A joint initiative of the government, independent experts and civil society has found that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is emerging as a major health problem in India. Moreover, delay in treatment of MD-RTB is the main reason behind increasing antibiotic resistance, especially towards drug Rifampicin. The findings have been established by Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) 2015 of...

-India Today Already GRAPpling with the Ganga cleaning project, the government seems to have a bigger problem at hand as the groundwater in more than half of the country's districts is contaminated with poisonous substances. The Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) has come up with a shocking assessment, according to which 276 districts have high levels of fluorides in their groundwater. At least 387 districts in 21 states, of the 676 districts...

-DNA Maharashtra: The consistently untimely rainfall has disturbed the crop sowing pattern in Maharashtra, and farmers are clueless what to sow now. The distress has led to a rise in farmer suicides in the state. Kailash Patil, cotton growing farmer from Jalgaon, told dna, "We received rainfall throughout this year. We were trained to cultivate crops as kharif (monsoon – June and July) and rabi (winter crop). Through most of both the seasons,...

-IPS News NEW DELHI: Vinita Panikker, 26, considers herself “the world’s most unfortunate woman”. Three years ago, a jealous husband, who suspected her of having an affair with her boss at a software company, poured a whole bottle of hydrochloric acid on her face while she was asleep. The fiery liquid seared her flesh, blighting her face almost entirely while blinding her in one eye. What remains today of a once pretty visage...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Changiram, a farmer from Kota's Darbheeji village, had sown his four-hectare land with wheat, investing around Rs 80,000 in seeds, fertilizers and labour. He expected to earn around Rs 4 lakh. But unseasonal rains and hailstorms in March damaged more than 70% of his crop, leaving him insolvent and staring at a bleak future. Changiram's plight mirrors that of tens of thousands of farmers across the...