All speakers addressing the main session of the World Water Week in Sweden during 5-11 September were presented with a beautifully wrapped bottle of tap water! Yes, you heard right: tap water from Stockholm. It is a symbol of achievement that the Swedes love to flaunt—and rightly so. It is also the best gift the Indian government can give to all Indians in general, and particularly those 500-odd million that live...

The green hills -- those that once used to soothe the entire region through the stilly silence, and fill it with the great wonder of multitudinousness -- have suddenly turned into a valley of death. First Diarrhea and then Cholera, the quiet bosom of the picturesque Raygada district is today torn by the screams of pain and loss of lives. People are dying like flies and hundreds are lying on...

A three-member central team reached the cholera-hit Rayagada district today to review measures being taken by the authorities to check the epidemic. The team visited Kalayansinghpur, the worst-affected block of the district. More cases of cholera deaths were also reported from across the district. While the official death toll stood at 40, unofficial sources claimed that the epidemic had already claimed more than 75 lives in Rayagada district alone. The number...

On Monday, leaders from 191 countries will get together in New York to review the progress in achieving the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) – a set of eight targets to fight hunger, DISEase and ignorance to be met by 2015. India has already prepared an interim report that shows mixed progress. But can we inch closer to achieving any of these targets in the remaining five years? Unlikely, if one...

Close on the heels of recording the largest number of women dying during child birth, the country now occupies another top spot. India holds the unenviable record of being home to the highest number of children who die before reaching their fifth birthday. According to the latest United Nations under-five mortality estimates, released on Friday by UNICEF, India recorded 17.26 lakh under-five deaths with a mortality rate (deaths per 1,000...