Copenhagen showed how fast and far India has traveled geo-politically. The same, alas, cannot be said about the health of the nation. On the international stage, India’s relentless focus on equity made us proud. The time has come to apply that principle at home. India’s ailing health delivery system is viewed as a worthy but dull topic on a normal day in a typical newsroom in the country. Typically, such neglected...

Educating disadvantaged and vulnerable groups is key  In the face of imports posing a competition to domestic manufacturing, the government has decided to come up with a National Consumer Policy to ensure uniform national and international standards in the various arms of the Central and State governments, the regulatory bodies and on consumer fora, and to lay down the guiding principles of complaint resolution. The Bureau of Indian Standards (BIS)will...

Highlights of the skill development programme * All rural youths in BPL category eligible * Govt. assures placement for at least 75 percent trainees * Youths to get training on technical and soft skills * MoUs with industrial houses to ensure placements * 75 percent expense to be borne by Centre, rest by state governments The Centre is firming up a skill development scheme for poor rural youth who will be given technical training by the...

Replying to a question in the Rajya Sabha on farmers falling into a debt trap, the government came out with data that are startling. Rice farmers have suffered losses in all regions save Andhra Pradesh over three cropping years ending in 2006-07, with wheat farmers faring a little better. Even today, news reports suggest that farmers do not really gain much even as consumer prices go through the roof. This...

THANTIRAYANKUPPAM, INDIA — Five years ago, I woke up on a Sunday morning, checked the news online and saw that a tsunami had hit my part of the world. Early reports were sketchy. I read about just a few casualties (in Sri Lanka, as I recall), and I remember thinking that the whole thing sounded exciting. I went down to the beach, about a 15-minute drive from my house. I walked...