RANWAN, India — In this north Indian village, workers recently dismantled stacks of burned and mildewed rice while flies swarmed nearby over spoiled wheat. Local residents said the rice crop had been sitting along the side of a highway for several years and was now being sent to a distillery to be turned into liquor. Just 180 miles to the south, in a slum on the outskirts of New Delhi, Leela...

Does long-term intake of a special form of insulin prevent diabetes and heart problems, but cause cancer? The debate has been raging in medical circles for long. Now, an international study involving 12,000 pre-diabetics settles two parts of it, but leaves the other open for further research. Results of ORIGIN (Outcome Reduction with Initial Glargine Intervention) study presented in the wee hours of Tuesday at the annual meeting of the American...

Contending that the NCERT textbook on political science did not represent the views or prejudices of one or two authors, Yogendra Yadav, who was chief adviser to the NCERT on the subject, said the book was developed by a large team of political scientists, teachers and educationists. “Given the very sensitive nature of the book, the entire text was shown to three eminent historians of contemporary India — Professor Sunil Khilnani,...

Gosikhurd was sanctioned in 1983 and meant to irrigate 2.5 lakh hectares in Vidarbha As Manikrao Gedam sits outside his three-room house, he wonders how he has benefited by giving up his 10 acres for the Gosikhurd irrigation project at Bhandara in Maharashtra's Vidarbha region. For that matter, he wonders what anyone has gained from it. Today, he has nothing else, but the house in a resettlement colony; his sons are unemployed; and...

India has decided to throw its weight behind the civil society on issues related to family planning, and articulate its rights-based approach at a summit scheduled in London in the next few weeks. India has kept away from planning family policies since the 70s, and incorporated population stabilisation programmes in the health policies focussing on sexual and reproductive health rights and women's empowerment. While the Centre has discouraged a targeted approach...