India faces the challenge of inappropriate use of antibiotics while Bharat copes with poor access to treatment, resulting in a policy conundrum and inaction. India was recently in the news for the wrong reasons. The serious threat posed by the newly discovered microbe, NDM-1 (New Delhi metallo--lactamase-1), resistant to many antibiotics, triggered alarm and panic. Predictions that the country will not meet the millennium development goal for child mortality caused dismay....

Assam has witnessed an alarming rise in patients suffering from glaucoma, a disease that causes permanent blindness. According to a conservative estimate, out of every 100 patients visiting the Regional Institute of Ophthalmology (RIO) here, nearly 10 suffer from glaucoma. Of the visually impaired in Assam, 10 per cent are victims of glaucoma compared to 5 per cent five years ago. RIO’s director C.K. Baruah told this correspondent that though many suffered...

Young women are part of a campaign to bring much-needed social change and improve sanitation facilities If you don't have a toilet at home, you might not get a bride in India. In a silent revolution of sorts, Indian women across the country, especially in rural and semi-urban areas, have a single condition before they agree to a match – the groom must have a toilet in his home. The "No Toilet,...

The Italian phrase "lascia il tempo que trova" (it leaves the air it finds) does a better job of describing Pranab Mukherjee's budget than India's corporate media would ever dare to do. To put it mildly, the budget this year, is yet again, an utter disappointment for the food and agriculture sectors. To begin with, flagship schemes like the midday meals and the Integrated Child Development Services did not, unlike in...

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said today that small seed enterprises are the best way of ensuring the availability and quality of non-hybrid seeds for food and animal feed crops in developing countries.In a newly-published policy guide, FAO cited World Bank data that showed that up to 50 per cent of crop yield increases come from improved seeds, while farmers’ access to quality seeds is a key...