-Outlook Lucknow: The Uttar Pradesh government's 'Samajwadi Ambulance Service' may have been marred by controversy due to its name, but the ambulances under the scheme have seen the births of over 9,500 children in the state. "The ambulance service, which started on September 14 last by Chief Minister Akhilesh Yadav has become birth place for 9,644 children. It included three families, which had twins and two families which had triplets. All these...

-Economic and Political Weekly     India is home to the largest number of children, 43 crore, in the world. Their care situation is in a shambles. Although, the new National Policy for Children reaffirms that they are "national assets", the budgetary outlays are not sufficient to take care of their health, education, protection and development. Manzoor Ali (manzoorali.ali@gmail.com) is with the Centre for Budget and Governance Accountability, New Delhi. Please click here to download...

-BBC A survey done earlier this year shows that public facilities in the poorest regions of India have steadily expanded, improving the lives of people there, writes development economist Jean Dreze. Once upon a time, not so long ago, public facilities in the poorest districts of India were few and far between. Most people were left to their own devices and they lived in the shadow of hunger, insecurity and exploitation, with no...

-PTI NEW DELHI: NCW has recommended drafting of a special legislation against human trafficking which includes the UN definition of the crime, besides setting up of a central nodal authority to curb all such activities. Taking note of increasing cases of human trafficking in Bihar, Jharkhand and West Bengal, the National Commission of Women (NCW) has sent a list of recommendations to the ministries of Home Affairs and Labour to prevent...

-Down to Earth Union health ministry says 17 other deaths of infants reported in Haryana, Kerala and Tamil Nadu were not linked to five-in-one vaccine The Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has admitted that the pentavalent vaccine has caused at least three infant deaths in Tamil Nadu since December 2011 when the vaccine was launched in the state. The admission follows a Right To Information query after vaccine-related deaths were...