Since the last few years, Prashan Bhushan, senior lawyer, has fired up the Indian political scene through his missionary legal practice.In the legal fraternity he is a loner because he is, always, on the wrong side of the power set up in New Delhi. In fact, when one meets the slow and soft-speaker, he hardly looks like a lawyer who is capable of shaking-up the government and its cronies.But, his...

South Asia in general and India in particular have the dubious distinction of standing out for wrong reasons every time a new global poverty report is released. We not only have the largest number of underweight children, a very high maternal mortality rate and the world’s highest number of out of school children but we also top the global malnutrition chart. (See links below for more details)  However the 2011 United...

Forcible acquisition of land for setting up of township at Rajarhat allegedThree years after Nandigram and two years after Singur, the theatre of political combat over land in West Bengal has shifted to Rajarhat on the northeastern fringe of Kolkata, where the Trinamool Congress braces itself for a fresh movement against what it alleges is forcible and dubious acquisition of land for the township coming up in the area. And...

The United Nations health agency is set to develop the first-ever global information staNDArds for traditional medicine, which is a primary source of health care for many people in parts of Asia, Africa and Latin America and is increasingly being used in Europe and North America. The International Classification of Traditional Medicine project will assist in creating an evidence base for traditional medicine &NDAsh; producing terminologies and classifications for diagnoses and...

The United Nations World Health Organization (WHO) today endorsed a new rapid test for tuberculosis, which it says could revolutionize the way the disease is tackled by providing an accurate diagnosis in about 100 minutes, compared to current tests that can take up to three months. “This new test represents a major milestone for global TB diagnosis and care. It also represents new hope for the millions of people who are...