-Economic and Political Weekly The Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has made public the National Health Policy 2015 Draft for discussion. The draft is more exhaustive and better organised in its coverage compared to the National Health Policy of 2002. It touches upon contemporary issues of concern, including the rapid emergence of chronic non-communicable diseases. From the latest available evidence, issues crucial to tackling chronic illness in India are discussed. Subrata...

-Tehelka Tired of importing toxic vegetables from Tamil Nadu, Kerala seems to have started a movement in organic vegetable farming It seems vegetables have taken over from water in the ongoing rift between the south Indian states of Kerala and Tamil Nadu. Having waged a relentless war over the sharing of water from the colonial Mullaperiyar dam for over three decades, the two states have now locked horns over the quality...

-Factchecker.in/ TheWire.in New Delhi: “Ma’am, can I go to the toilet?” asked Sunehra (she uses only one name), a bubbly 12-year-old fifth-standard student of Nigam Pratibha Vidyalaya, a school run by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi in the south-eastern neighbourhood of Sangam Vihar. Since there isn’t a working toilet, she defecates in an open field near the classroom. “I have used the toilet just two-three times in the school,” Sunehra told Fact...

-Down to Earth In rural India, poisoning accounts for four in 10 suicides due to swallowing of pesticides A World Health Organization (WHO) case study carried out in two Tamil Nadu villages shows the link between limited access to pesticides and the reduction in the number of suicides. A WHO report based on the study says that the suicide rate in these two villages reduced after pesticides were kept in storerooms instead...

-The Hindu BELAGAVI (Karnataka): Following directions from the State government to implement the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act to create employment opportunities to the needy in the drought-affected areas of the State, the Zilla Panchayat has launched a special drive to extend the benefit of the scheme to the unskilled workers in the district. Since unemployment in villages is one of the direct impacts of natural calamities such as the...