-Down to Earth Happy Seeder — a tractor-mounted device — will eliminate air pollution and reduce green house gas emissions from on-farm activities by more than 78 per cent relative to all options A new study has found that farmers in north India can not only help reduce air pollution but also improve the productivity of their soil and earn more profits if they stop burning their crop residue and instead adopted...

-The Hindu The figure quoted by the government fails to completely take into consideration deliveries in private hospitals. Female foeticide continues to increase at an alarming rate, as per the Sample Registration System (SRS) data released in July for the period 2015-2017. The sex ratio at birth (SRB) has been dropping continuously since Census 2011, coming down from 909 girls per thousand boys in 2011-2013 to 896 girls in 2015-2017, to quote...

-TheWire.in The budget does little for the most vulnerable populations such as women working in the informal sector or their young children. Just by looking at the numbers, the Budget for health seems promising. The total allocation for the department of health and family welfare (HFW) has increased by about 16%, which could be seen as a substantial hike considering there was hardly any year-on-year expansion during the previous term of this...

-The Hindu Business Line To tackle homelessness, the government should provide better incentives to developers to provide affordable housing Food, clothing and shelter are three basic human needs. Out of the three, shelter remains beyond the reach of 1.77 million people in India, accounting for 0.15 per cent of the nation’s population (Census 2011). Rights groups, however, say that the actual figure is at least three times higher. Consequently, a large number...

-The Hindu It is imperative to promote community-based care rather than relying only on hospital services The deaths of 154 children in Bihar due to acute encephalitis syndrome (AES) has laid bare the precarious capacity of the State’s healthcare apparatus to handle outbreaks. AES has been linked to two factors: litchi consumption by starving children and a long, ongoing heat wave. As promises of bolstering the health infrastructure are being made, it...