Sunita Laxman Jadhav is a door-to-door saleswoman who sells waiting. She sweeps along muddy village lanes in her nurse’s white sari, calling on newly married couples with an unblushing proposition: Wait two years before getting pregnant, and the government will thank you. It also will pay you. “I want to tell you about our honeymoon package,” began Ms. Jadhav, an auxiliary nurse, during a recent house call on a new bride in...

Four infants died in Lucknow after they were given anti-measles vaccine The team will ascertain whether the vaccines were spurious or there were procedural lapses It will probe whether Auxiliary Nurse-Midwives were trained to administer the vaccine The Centre has sent a two-member team to Lucknow to probe the deaths of four infants after they were administered anti-measles vaccination at an immunisation camp in the Mohanlal Ganj area. “Most stringent action will be taken...

India, the world’s second-biggest rice grower, may have a record harvest this year as increased planting offset drought in the east of the country. Production may total 100 million tonnes in the year ending June 2011, compared with 89.3 million tonnes a year ago, said Vijay Setia, president of All India Rice Exporters’ Association. Output was a record 99.2 million tonnes in the year ended June 30, 2009, according to the...

The violent agitation by farmers in western Uttar Pradesh spread further on Tuesday, despite the state government's offer of more money as compensation for land acquired for the 165 km long Noida-Agra Expressway. While the agitating farmers of Aligarh and Mathura rejected the government's offer, farmers in neighbouring Agra district also began protesting on Tuesday. Under pressure from agitating farmers and political parties, the Mayawati government on Monday night increased the total...

BJP may have stalled proceedings in both Houses of parliament on Monday over the firing in Aligarh in which four people were killed. But the lesser talked-about fact of the matter is that the original notification for the Taj Expressway was issued in April 2001 when BJP’s Rajnath Singh was the Uttar Pradesh (UP) chief minister. The expressway, which Mayawati re-christened as Yamuna Expressway, is at the crux of the ongoing clash...