Food inflation snapped a three-week eASIng trend in mid-March and fuel inflation remained at elevated levels, keeping pressure on the Reserve Bank to rein in broader inflation. The food price index rose an annual 10.05% in the week to March 12, higher than a 9.42% rise in the previous week as prices of potatoes and vegetables rose, data released on Thursday showed. The fuel price index climbed 12.79% in the same week,...

Kerala and Tamil Nadu with the lowest calorie consumption seem to show better health outcome indicators This report, a joint initiative by the MS Swaminathan Research Foundation — an institution with a remarkable long term commitment to issues related to food security — and the United Nations World Food Programme, should serve as an excellent hand book on urban food insecurity. ASIde from providing all the relevant information in a consolidated...

World Tuberculosis Day to be observed today 2 million people successfully treated annually through DOTS Tuberculosis (TB) remains one of the biggest threats to public health in the World Health Organisation (WHO) - South-East ASIa Region, causing one death a minute. Although the total number of people affected by the disease has steadily declined in the last decade, there are five million people living with TB in the region — a third...

Forested areas in Europe, North America, the Caucasus and Central ASIa have been increASIng steadily, growing by 25 million hectares over the past two decades, the United Nations said today, citing diseases, insects and storms aggravated by climatic factors as the major threats to the ongoing health of woodlands. “In addition to forest area, the volume of wood in pan-European forests is growing by over 430 million cubic metres every year...

India is all set to be part of the global movement to free mentally ill people from chains.   A shameful practice often referred to as a blot on human rights, mentally ill patients in the southeast ASIa region, including India, are chained to poles or their beds in institutions meant to cure them. In the Erwadi tragedy in India in 2001, over 20 people with mental illness were burned to death after...