-BBC The severe flooding in Chennai again proves that India's cities are unprepared for extreme weather events like rains, droughts and cyclonic storms which are becoming more frequent and intense. Many parts of India suffer flooding every year during the annual monsoon rains from June to September. The northeast monsoon has been particularly vigorous over southern India and more so in Tamil Nadu state, of which Chennai is the capital. Last month was...

-PTI United Nations: India has been ranked a low 131 out of 167 nations on a global index that measures the level of information and communication technology access, even as the number of households with Internet and computer has increased in the country over the last five years. UN International Telecommunications Union’s flagship annual Measuring the Information Society Report said that globally 3.2 billion people are now online, representing 43.4 per cent...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a move that comes as a huge relief to patients of chronic Hepatitis C, the apex committee of the Central Drugs Standard Control Organisation (CDSCO) has granted a waiver of local trials for crucial new direct-acting antiviral drugs treating the disease. The waiver for sofosbuvir and ledipasvir co-formulation and for daclatasvir is expected to bring the generic version of these drugs, which cost a fraction...

-SciDev.net * Most children of housekeeping staff in an Indian hospital found to have low nutrition levels * India’s officially defined poverty-line needs to be revised say nutrition researchers * Nurses tended to have overweight children while the kids of doctors were found to be normal NEW DELHI: A pilot study of nutrition status among children in a hospital community in the Indian capital suggests that the national poverty threshold, as defined by a...

-The Indian Express The study also found that textbooks provided by the state government have grammatical errors with many words spelt incorrectly.  A study conducted in 28 primary and upper primary schools in various districts of Bihar has revealed that only 19 per cent primary schools had toilets, 28 per cent had hand pumps and 83 per cent teachers were hired on contractual basis. The study also found that textbooks provided by...