-The Times of India NEW DELHI: It is well known that quality of life greatly varies amongst different states within India. Some states have greater industrial or agricultural output, higher income levels, better educational and health indicators while others are still struggling with backwardness. But what is much less known is that within states too there are wide and astonishing variations. State level averages often hide huge and unconscionable disparity on...

-The Hindu JENVAC is the first vaccine to be manufactured in the public-private partnership mode India on Friday launched its first indigenous vaccine to protect children from Japanese encephalitis. Until now, the country has been importing the vaccine from China. The Vero cell-derived purified inactivated JE vaccine-JENVAC, which received manufacturing and marketing approvals from the Drug Controller General of India, is the first vaccine to be manufactured in the public-private partnership mode between...

-The Hindu     Toll from foot-and-mouth disease reaches 1,485, mostly in south Karnataka Bangalore: The steep death toll among cattle from foot-and-mouth disease (FMD) could have been exacerbated by an unusually heavy rainfall this monsoon, even as an inefficient vaccination programme left thousands of animals vulnerable to the disease. While FMD (a viral infection affecting animals with ‘cloven hooves' such as cattle, deer and wild boar) is not fatal by itself, a secondary infection...

-The Hindu Bangalore: In one of the biggest cattle deaths due to foot and mouth disease in the State, the outbreak in southern districts has claimed 730 head of cattle so far this month. Negligence on the part of farmers to get the cattle vaccinated and also delay in starting the seasonal vaccination is said to have contributed to the outbreak even as the officials suspect that a new strain of the...

-The Hindu Kolar (Karnataka): "I have kept one and a half acres ready for sowing ragi. However, there is neither rain nor humidity conducive for sprouting of the seeds," T.M. Venkatesh, a farmer in Toorandahalli under Jannaghatta gram panchayat limits in Kolar taluk, said. The story of Munivenkatappa, another farmer at Doddurkarupanahalli in Bangarpet taluk, is no different. Though he sowed ragi on one acre, his hopes were dashed when the skies...