The Chief Minister Mr. N. Kiran Kumar Reddy is of the view that the inclusion of Rural Connectivity as one of the permissible categories of works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will be a boon for rural development in the State. Providing connectivity to SC, ST and other remote habitations including providing internal roads in the SC/ST habitations are approved for implementation. The Chief Minister was informed...

Many Indians eat poorly. Would a “right to food” help? “LOOK at this muck,” says 35-year-old Pamlesh Yadav, holding up a tin-plate of bilious-yellow grains, a mixture of wheat, rice and mung beans. “It literally sticks in the throat. The children won’t eat it, so we take it home and feed it to the cows.” Mrs Yadav has brought her children to a state-run nursery in Bhindusi village in rural Rajasthan. The...

Armed with a clutch of numbers, drawing on raw data as well as intelligent guesswork, Leela Visaria had six years ago generated a figure for India’s population in 2011 that is closest to what the 2011 census has actually thrown up. Visaria, a demographer at the Gujarat Institute of Development Research (GIDR), an academic institution in Ahmedabad, had predicted that India’s population would grow to 1,204 million, just six million away...

“National organisations of health research should come together to provide effective stewardship” Proportion of published papers increased from 0·4 % in 1988 to 1·8 % in 2008 Only 1/4 Public Health research reports rated as being of adequate quality Expressing concern over the scarcity of research on the routine health-information system in both reports and published papers, which is crucial to track the response of the health system to the health needs of...

Policy aims at creation of system to maximise returns on investments in health research National Health Research Management Forum to have representation from all stakeholders To overcome the weaknesses of the publicly funded health structures that restricted research in priority health areas, the Union Health and Family Planning Ministry has finalised the National Health Research Policy. It would maximise the returns on investments in health research through creation of a health research...