-The Business Standard How to take hot air out of the poverty debate Once again, poverty estimations are creating a needless debate over what is a modest measurement problem. For many years since 1973, the government had followed a simple formula: if a household could not afford to buy a minimal number of calories and clothing for its members, it was deemed as a household below the Planning Commission poverty line....

When a corporate executive recently landed in the emergency ward of Hiranandani Hospital in Powai with palpitations, doctors first checked his heart. When tests ruled out any cardiac problem, they found an unlikely culprit-too many cups of green tea. "After talking to him, we realized he had had over a dozen cups of green tea within the span of a few hours,'' said cardiologist Ganesh Kumar. Some brands of green tea...

On March 29, 2011, a Right to Information application on AIIMS faculty members travelling abroad on official tours was filed. The applicant sought details of their reasons for the visits, money spent and sponsors of the trips. AIIMS public information officer Lalit Kumar replied six days later saying, “The information is not available. Presently there are 450 committee members. The details for permission of this kind of work, thus the...

Now, Bollywood movies won't have to run a scroll with anti-tobacco messages each time a smoking scene is shown. India has for the time-being shelved a notification that had come into effect on November 14, 2011. The notification had made it mandatory for all new movies that had scenes pertaining to smoking or tobacco use, to provide health warnings at the bottom of the screen all through the duration of the...

* 11 percent of babies born premature in 2010, 1.1 million died * Experts estimate 75 percent could be saved * U.S. rate at 12 pct, fueled by later births, fertility treatments NEW YORK, May 2 (Reuters) - The world's developed countries have seen their average rate of premature births double to 6 percent since 1995, despite efforts to reduce the phenomenon, according to a report released on Wednesday. Worldwide, 15 million of the...