The long and heavy monsoon has taken a toll on Himachal Pradesh's vegetable production, say farmers. The production of tomato, capsicum, cabbage, potato and cucumber, among other vegetables, is significantly lower this time. The excess rain has either triggered the spread of DISEases or the standing crops have simply rotted away due to excess moisture, say farmers. Vegetables are largely grown in the mid-hills of the state which fall in Solan, Shimla, Sirmaur,...

VISHAL, the son of a farm labourer in the west Indian state of Maharashtra, is almost four. He should weigh around 16kg (35lb). But scooping him up from the floor costs his nursery teacher, a frail woman in a faded sari, little effort. She slips Vishal’s scrawny legs through two holes cut in the corners of a cloth sack, which she hooks to a weighing scale. The needle stops at...

The prolonged monsoon and the DISEases that come with it have really tested Delhi’s health-care infrastructure. There is a huge shortage of beds in government as well as private hospitals. You can find patients wreathing in fever in the corridors, emergency wards, everywhere. Why aren’t there enough hospitals around? Contrast this with the media: Nowhere in the world will you find so many newspapers, magazines and television channels than India....

The project will focus on malaria and Tuberculosis VHAI has been working in Orissa for several years French non-governmental organisation Doctors of the World (Medecins du Monde) has tied up with the Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI) to provide health care facility and awareness in Bhawanipatna in Orissa. Talking to reporters here on Wednesday, Pierre Micheletti, former president of Medecins du Monde (MDM) said the aim is to facilitate and supplement the...

Contaminated water sources and the virtual absence of health care claim dozens of lives in the State, now in the grip of cholera. COME monsoon and the backward regions of Orissa are in the grip of water-borne DISEases. This year too has been no different. According to official figures, 150 people had died of cholera and diarrhoea in the State as on September 15. Unofficial reports put the toll at more...