-The United Nations   Top United Nations officials today stressed the need to realize the human right to water and sanitation, stating that it is critical not only to a life of dignity but also to achieving progress in the areas such as poverty reduction, boosting child health and combating diseases. In July 2010, the General Assembly adopted a resolution declaring that safe and clean drinking water and sanitation is a human...

The rates of maternal and infant mortality have improved only marginally, according to the latest Sample Registration System. THE country's largest demographic sample survey, covering 1.4 million households and a population of 7.01 million, during the period 2007-09, says that there was only a mild improvement in the infant mortality rate (IMR) and the maternal mortality ratio (MMR). The findings of the latest Sample Registration System (SRS), an exercise which...

-PTI   Holding the Naveen Patnaik government responsible for the delay in the implementation of the proposed POSCO steel project, Orissa Pradesh Congress Committee Tuesday sought Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's intervention to shift it to barren land near the present site in Jagatsinghpur. "I told the Prime Minister about the fertile and multi-crop land at Dhinkia where the state government has identified land for setting up the POSCO project ... I informed...

The Supreme Court criticises the Chhattisgarh and Central governments and orders the disbanding of Salwa Judum. THE case Nandini Sundar vs State of Chhattisgarh arose out of a writ petition (civil) filed in 2007 in the Supreme Court by Nandini Sundar, a Professor of sociology at the Delhi School of Economics; Ramachandra Guha, a historian; and E.A.S. Sarma, former Secretary to Government of India and former Commissioner, Tribal Welfare, Government...

Reinforcing the growing financial independence of women in India, a survey says the income level of urban Indian women has doubled in the last decade. This increase has also led to the average urban household income doubling, according to a study by market research firm IMRB. The urban Indian woman who earned Rs 4,492 per month in 2001 was taking home as much as Rs 9,457 as of 2010. The rise...