-IANS Eating fruits and vegetables every day can reduce your risk of developing heart disease by 20 percent, a World Health Organization (WHO) study showed.  Death rates from heart disease are twice as high among people who eat diets high in saturated fat, trans fats and Salt such as junk food, Xinhua quoted the study as saying. More people around the world die from cardiovascular diseases than any other causes.  These diseases were responsible...

The “committee” promised by the Goalpara administration to clear the paltry sum of Rs 200 to fund midday meals in Belpara primary school in the district has not materialised yet, leaving its 40 students in the lurch. The promise came on June 12, almost a month after the May 13 abduction of the school’s headmaster, Kameshwar Rabha, and another teacher by suspected GNLA militants while they duo were riding back home...

Social protection has seen a sharp focus in the development policy agenda during the past decade. There is also a clear trend for making social protection, as well as food security, “rights-based”, rather than “discretionary”. Yet, no clear consensus has so far emerged concerning many basic design choices and implementation modalities. The Food Security Act 2011, which is now under the consideration of our parliament, is designed to achieve the...

JAISALMER: The father of a baby girl, who died in suspicious circumstances, was arrested and sent to judicial custody for 15 days. Police claim that Deen Singh alias Dileep Singh, the father of the girl, deliberately denied her treatment, which led to her death. According to the local medical authorities, members of some communities, infamous for killing baby girls, have now found a new way to make the deaths look 'natural'....

A government report lends credence to the notion of “two Indias”, or the distinction between “India” and “Bharat” – a theme often debated in recent years. At a time when urban India is growing and policy makers have expressed clear preference for the trend, this report, by National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), brings India’s deep urban-rural divide into focus, showing disparities in scale and levels of expenditure and consumption and, equally...