-The Hindu Indians are living longer than before, but illness and disability of a very high order and relatively early death remain severe health care challenges. What should concern health care planners and providers is that India is lagging behind many of its South Asian neighbours, including China, in key health parameters. Life expectancy at birth in India, that was 58.3 in 1990, has gone up to 65.2 in 2010. However, most...

-The Times of India The Army has once again strongly rejected calls for raising new "single-class" units like the Gujarat, Kalinga, Dalit, Ahir, Paswan or Tribal regiments as well as attempts to tinker with its "time-tested" regimental system. "The policy since Independence is not to raise any new regiment on the basis of a particular class, creed, community, religion or region but to have a force in which all Indians have representation....

-The Hindu One of the most prominent features of India’s middle-class-driven public culture has been an obsession about our GDP growth rate, and a facile equation of that number with a sense of national achievement or impending arrival into affluence. In media headlines, political speeches, and everyday conversations, the GDP growth rate number — whether it is five per cent or eight per cent or whatever — has become a staple...

-The Hindu The large sums of money spent in the eradication of the disease is an investment in the economic development of the country In the 1980s, only three decades ago, 200,000 to 400,000 children, all under 5 years, were afflicted with polio paralysis annually in India. That was a daily average of 500 to 1000 cases. By the age of six, eight among 1,000 children already had polio paralysis; two would...

-The Times of India The Right to Education Act (RTE) mandates that every child has the fundamental right to free and compulsory elementary education in India. March 31, 2013, is the deadline set for full implementation of the Act. However, several challenges need to be overcome, especially to provide education for children in areas of conflict.  In the Indian context, three regions experience varying degrees of conflict - Maoist-affected areas, Jammu and...