-The Hindu   Chennai (Tamil Nadu): The influx of visitors from the north-eastern regions and States such as Odisha, where malaria is endemic, is a cause for concern to public health officials. The State has been registering a gradual drop in malarial cases since 2010 but it will be several years before the disease is taken off the list of public health problems. The theme for this year's World Malaria Day, observed on...

-The Times of India   NEW DELHI: A German researcher's study of the dying Yamuna is an interesting take on Delhi's aspirations to be a 'world class city' vis-a-vis its utter failure in conserving the river. The study talks about Delhi's constant obsession with beautifying and developing Delhi's riverfront and how this has ironically meant nothing but further deterioration of the riparian ecology. Titled 'Bourgeois Environmentalism and the Reclamation of Yamuna's Floodplain...

-The Telegraph   Paddy may not be the climate culprit that the world is making it out to be Agricultural scientist Pratap Bhattacharyya may have found a remarkable piece of evidence that absolves swathes of paddy fields stretching over millions of hectares of a climate crime. On the contrary, he believes that rice is doing its bit for the environment. A study by Bhattacharyya and his colleagues at the Cuttack-based Central Rice Research Institute...

-Down to Earth   India's first PM born after Independence will face the old problem of poverty eradication India may have its first post-Independence-born prime minister this June. But what difference would it make in terms of the country's development agenda? How will the new prime minister face the challenges that have been there since before Independence? Or, what are the developmental challenges the new prime minister may find difficult to address? Arguably,...

-Down to Earth   All safe motherhood programmes of the government are focused on institutional deliveries, but health centres are in disarray. Experts suggest ways to reduce deaths during delivery Lal Mohan, a daily wage labourer, has no clue what took his wife's life. Sarita Devi, 25, was expecting her third child, and was on way to a good hospital at Bhagalpur district in Bihar. "She was normal all through the nine months...