We need to make sure nutrition is not easily neglected. And that means putting pressure on leaders throughout society to focus on nutrition. I have just finished a trip to India to help contribute to the efforts on ending malnutrition. The politicians and media were talking about the sparkling new economic growth and development figures. There was no such attention given to the “other” growth and development figures — those related...

Investing first in the world’s most disadvantaged children and communities can save millions of lives and help spur progress towards achieving internationally agreed development targets, according to a new study by the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF). The agency found that an equity-based approach, focusing on the needs of the most disadvantaged children, can be a cost-effective strategy to reaching the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) – eight targets that include slashing...

A United Nations-backed conference aimed at advancing the rights of persons with disabilities concluded today with countries underscoring the need to continue building on recent momentum to ensure that the rights of the world’s estimated 650 million people with disabilities are protected and strengthened. Hundreds of delegates and civil society representatives took part in the three-day conference at UN Headquarters in New York to see how to better implement the Convention...

As the tribal heartland seethes with anger over displacement and Naxalism, the PM has formed an apex advisory body of Centre and states to guide policies affecting the ethnic population. The Centre has formed a ' National Council for Tribal Welfare' to provide policy guidelines across the board. It will comprise key central ministries with a bearing on tribal lives and chief ministers of schedule V and VI states. It...

Realising it was losing the turf war with the hyperactive Union Ministry of Environment and Forests on a subject that has become a top priority for the United Progressive Alliance government, the once comatose Tribal Affairs Ministry has, in recent weeks, suddenly begun to assert its rights over its responsibilities. The first sign of this realisation was reflected in Tribal Affairs Minister Kantilal Bhuria shooting off letters in quick succession on...