As many as 26 "mini interventions" will make up the world's largest programme to combat non-communicable diseases (NCDs) that will be launched by India soon. The "New Delhi Call for Action on combating NCDs in India" initiative will be against specific diseases, and some will exclusively address major risk factors like obesity, junk food and tobacco consumption. The World Health Organization (WHO) only recognizes cardiovascular, cancer, diabetes and chronic lung ailments as...

Torrential rain and fresh landslides on Saturday hampered search and rescue operations in North Sikkim's quake-affected areas. The death toll of the Sikkim quake stood at 77. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will visit Sikkim on September 27. He will fly over north Sikkim for an aerial survey of the quake-hit areas. State information secretary Karma Topgay said the Sikkim government will give him a memorandum about the assistance needed from the...

With skewed sex ratios it is difficult to find a local mate Decades of unchecked sex-selective abortions have made the once fertile States of Punjab and Haryana suffer a drought of brides, making human-trafficking a lucrative and expanding trade. Often projected as a voluntary marriage, every year, thousands of young women and girls are lured into the idea of a happy married life with a rich man in Punjab or Haryana....

Anna Hazare is not Mohandas Gandhi or Jayaprakash Narayan. No one wants to seriously hear his diagnosis of the ills of the Indian political system or his vision of a future India and, so, it is pointless to find fault with either. He is not even a Gandhian satyagrahi looking for self-purification or waiting to listen to his inner voice. He has used his fasts to unashamedly pressure a corrupt,...

-The Indian Express   A landless farmer of Barahakanta village under Attabira Tehsil in the district allegedly ended his life by hanging from a tree on Tuesday. Identified as Dayanindhi Bhue (30), he was cultivating cash crops on ‘gochar’ land for the last couple of years. Bhue was growing brinjals but luck ran out when the seeds purchased from an agency in Attabira turned out to be of poor quality. The plants did...