While protests from civil society demanding the release of renowned paediatrician and social rights activist Binayak Sen is gathering steam by the day across the country, the international community has also launched an online signature campaign for a petition to be submitted to the President. According to the petition ‘Indian Justice Has Failed Dr. Binayak Sen' posted on www.petitiononline.com, more than 10,300 persons from cities across the world have already signed...

A leading Indian biochemist has urged the environment and forests ministry to lift the moratorium on Bt brinjal, the country's first genetically modified (GM) food crop developed using a technology supplied by the US multinational seed giant Monsanto. 'The moratorium is not affecting the multinational companies but India's own scientists who are ready with more than a dozen GM crops, including (Vitamin-A rich) golden rice,' said Govindarajan Padmanabhan at the Indian...

The Supreme Court on Thursday asked the government to widen the scope of its action on black money beyond the issue of tax evasion, questioning why it had not gone after those who had stashed huge amounts of money abroad or inquired about the source of the siphoned funds. The Centre explained the difficulty in revealing the names of foreign bank account holders who were in the zone of suspicion for...

While reliable data on health workers in India is difficult to obtain, a report in The Lancet: India series says that the country has roughly 20 health workers per 10,000 population. The figure is arrived at when the workforce is calculated including allopathic doctors (31%), nurses and midwives (30%), pharmacists (11%), practitioners of ayurveda, yoga and naturopathy, unani, siddha, and homoeopathy (9%), and others (9%). In their paper ‘Human Resources for Health...

8 lakh girls, from 11 to 18 years, will benefit from scheme Rajasthan Women and Child Development Minister Bina Kak launched the “Sabala Yojana” here on Monday for empowerment of out-of-school adolescent girls through supplementary nutrition and life skills TRAIning at anganwadi centres, ensuring their mental and physical growth, and enabling them to become self-sufficient. Addressing the inaugural function at Jawahar Kala Kendra here, Ms. Kak said about eight lakh girls in...