-Economic and Political Weekly   The proposed Rangarajan method on measurement of poverty in India borrows elements from three earlier methods - those of Alagh, Lakdawala and Tendulkar. An important departure in the Rangarajan method is to compute the poverty line commodity basket by combining items from two fractile groups to address the relatively higher expenses for some essential non-food items. This, while being statistically plausible, poses a behavioural dilemma, as there...

-Down to Earth Infrastructure for primary healthcare has decreased in the past decade As India moves towards the goal of universal health coverage (UHC), its inadequate health infrastructure is going to pose major problems. In the past few years, the percentage of shortfall in basic infrastructure has increased, instead of declining, says a report released Thursday. Despite massive spending under the National Rural Health MISsion, the shortfall in sub-centres increased by...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Faced with the scary prospect of losing lives to simple infections in the future, India is finally waking up to the dangers of reckless antibiotic use. The Indian Medical Association, a pan-India voluntary organization of doctors, will on Sunday launch a nationwide awareness programme on overuse of these live-savers, a practice that has led to emergence of drug-resistant organisms. IMA will also ask fellow practitioners to...

-The Hindu Traditional hierarchies are too deeply entrenched to be reversed through one single measure; they need a concerted push, backed by strong will from different segments of society, including, but not confined to, politicians The rise of Other Backward Classes (OBC) and Dalit-Adivasi leaders in the political sphere is celebrated as India's "silent revolution." At the national level, this phenomenon has been especially marked since the early 1990s, leading to comments...

-Press Information Bureau/ Ministry of Rural Development The Union Minister of Rural Development and Drinking Water and Sanitation Shri Nitin Gadkari said that Swachh Bharat MISsion will be converted into a mass movement to make India an open defecation free country in Five Years. Addressing a Joint Press conference with the Urban Development Minister Shri M. Venkaiah Naidu here this afternoon, Shri Gadkari said, one lakh thirty four thousand crore rupees...