-The Hindu The country has shown that it is possible to have superior social outcomes at lower per capita incomes and rates of economic growth Bangladesh is very much in the news these days in our country, but for the wrong reasons. In the unfortunate Bangladesh-bashing that seems to have become somewhat of a pastime, we seem to have failed to notice the striking developmental success that it has had in the...

-Frontline A study finds that institutional support alone cannot help reduce maternal mortality in India.  THE high rate of maternal mortality in India has been a cause for national concern, especially on account of the focus on reaching the United Nations’ Millennium Development Goals by 2015. Although there is a growing realisation that it will be difficult to meet the MDG targets by that deadline, there is a renewed interest in the...

-People's Democracy IT seems the Sheila Dixit government of Delhi, backed by powerful elements in the UPA-2 central government, will let nothing stand in the way of water privatisation in the capital. Several earlier attempts going back many years to fully or partially privatise distribution of water, especially the big loan application to the World Bank in 2005, were foiled by vigilant community organisations, public interest groups, trade unions and political...

-The Times of India Rural positing for six months will soon become compulsory for undergraduate medical students before they get their MBBS degree with the Medical Council of India (MCI) recently presenting the proposal to the health ministry. At present, an MBBS course of 5.5 years includes one year of internship. However, most of these medical students end up practising in urban settings, refusing to serve the country's rural population. The MCI has...

-The Times of India Criticized for tardy probe progress coupled with acute shortage of officers to investigate cases, the CBI got a relief in National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam investigations as the Uttar Pradesh government has constituted a special court for all the health scheme fraud cases. The UP government issued a notification on August 28, constituting a Special Court especially for NRHM cases in Ghaziabad. The court of Session Judge...