The nation wants to know how often teenagers pop the emergency contraceptive pill. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will support and finance research projects that will look at the pill's use and overuse. Emergency Contraceptive Pills (ECPs) are used to prevent pregnancy following an unprotected act of sexual intercourse within 72 hours. The council has called for research proposals by December 31 on emergency contraception, especially those that will look...

India’s poor can take heart — for there’s justice even in this world, despite and in spite of the Planning Commission. Planning Commission deputy chairman, and expert on poverty, Montek Singh Ahluwalia, has gotten off his high horse. Ahluwalia said on Monday that a new committee would be set up to come up with a fresh method to identify India’s poor. Last week the Commission had filed an affidavit in the...

Discussing the ‘poverty line’ has become a bit like talking about sex or death. Everybody has a view on it. And no two persons have the same view. The Planning commission, members of the national advisory council, the rural development minister, assorted chief ministers, social scientists, economists, the media, the bloggerati — all have made their points loud and clear. However, such is the topic that it continues to trigger verbal...

Makes case for Attorney General’s argument before SC. With the battle over identifying India’s poor moving to the Supreme Court, the Planning Commission has told Attorney General G Vahanvati that the controversial poverty line will not determine the Centre’s liability on subsidised food, but instead will be based on the eligibility limit in the proposed Food Security Act. “The Central government’s liability will be capped, but the cap will not be the...

-PTI   After a brief hiatus, Sonia Gandhi-led National Advisory Council is all set to get back into action by taking up the contentious issue of poverty indicators at its meeting next week. The meeting of the NAC is scheduled to take place on October 21 when it is expected to discuss the criteria for determination of poverty, an issue that had kicked up a storm following an affidavit filed by the...