-PTI United Nations: About 27 per cent of women aged 20 to 49 years were married before age 15 in India, UNICEF said in a report titled "Ending Child Marriage - Progress and prospects." India has the sixth highest prevalence of child marriages in the world, with one in every three child bride living in India, a United Nations report said. Child marriage among girls is most common in South Asia and sub-Saharan...

-The Hindu We need a National Authority on Hunger Elimination, with adequate funds and exclusive powers, administrative and financial Of the eight Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations, the first relates to eradicating poverty and extreme hunger, halving hunger by 2015. But most of the countries, including India, have not achieved tangible results on this front. With 2015 around the corner, the new government has a major task of addressing...

-The Hindu   The NDA's first budget has thrown a few sops in the direction of the environment and the millions dependent on it. But much like its predecessors, in painting the big picture it remains embarrassingly devoid of innovative ideas on how to move India towards ecological sustainability and justice "While 2015 will be a landmark year for sustainable development and climate change policy, 2014 is the last chance for all stakeholders...

-The Business Standard Because the ecology of various regions differs, it is silly to club them all under one countrywide average number A whopping three-fourth of the country's geographic area is right now facing a rainfall deficit severe enough to warrant crisis management. The Indian Meteorological Department's data shows that 74% of India has so far recorded monsoon rainfall much below its normal levels. Of the 36 rainfall divisions that the...

-Economic and Political Weekly Corruption in Indian medicine is back on the front pages. One would think that there has been an abrupt spurt in corrupt practices or a major scandal. Nothing of that sort has happened. However, there have been some interesting developments for the focus to shift back to what is really a very old affliction. This is an update on recent happenings as the entrepreneurial spirit of the...