-Live Mint   As United Progressive Alliance chairperson Sonia Gandhi prepares to intervene next week in the great national debate about who is poor, she might want to visit north-eastern Mumbai to see how the poorest are not even classified as such and how a giant government scheme to save their children from malnutrition is failing. The nauseating stench from a mountain of garbage greets a visitor to Rafi Nagar at the base...

As a national debate rages over the Indian poverty line, in the heart of Bandra, one of Mumbai’s richest suburbs, in a shanty with barely enough standing space for two adults, three-year-old Priya Doiphode, clad in a red tee shirt, lies listless on a string bed. Priya is one of the 83,243 children in Mumbai who are malnourished, according to government data, a statistic that makes Mumbai the most malnourished...

Will patent rights be used only for ensuring the legitimate interests of pharmaceutical companies, or will these be used in an exaggerated and unjust way to deprive patients of their right to life? This crucial question, which has been debated time and again in the context of the significant case of Glivec, an anti-cancer drug, has now reached a critical stage. It may be pointed out here that as early as...

-The Indian Express   Cities in India and China drowned in a sea of automobiles are experiencing maximum health issues, like "acute" as well as "chronic" respiratory problems and lung cancers, due to air pollution, a UN body has said. The rising population of SUVs (sports utility vehicles), cars and two-wheelers in Indian cities, where it is a status symbol for middle classes to posses the latest automobiles, is having a deadly impact...

Global efforts to set a target for daily salt consumption at 5 grams, in order to reduce deaths due to stroke, has faced a major setback. The all important United Nations Non-Communicable Diseases (NCD) Summit in New York, that kicks off on Monday, is unlikely to set a global target for reduction in salt consumption levels. According to the NCD Alliance, a formal alliance of four international federations -- International Diabetes Federation,...