-The Indian Express Shirwani, Pitora, Deoli (Uttarakhand): Over a fortnight after the flash-floods, while many villages remain inaccessible by road, tragic stories are emerging from areas where dirt tracks have been opened up. About seven kilometres from Guptkashi, the six-odd hamlets that comprise the Deoli-Bramhagram panchayat have reported 57 men MISsing, and the area is fast getting the tag of the "village of widows". For about six months of the year,...

-The Indian Express In March, a task force on disaster management set up by the government in 2011 submitted its report, suggesting sweeping changes to the Disaster Management Act, 2005. But it did not get much attention. It took the devastation of Uttarakhand for the home ministry to take a serious look at the report. The task force, led by former NDMA secretary P K MIShra, suggested that the NDMA, which...

-The Hindu That India, the pharmacy of the South, should find itself on the brink of a major TB-drug stock-out is at once shocking and shameful. The fact that an antiquated drug-procurement system and incompetent and irresponsible government departments - which dragged their feet for more than two long years to procure the drugs - could have brought us to such a situation tells us how dangerously poised the national...

-The Hindu Kochi: Chief Minister Oommen Chandy, who recently received an award from the United Nations on behalf of the Chief Minister's office, was actually nominated for the award by his own government. The rules of nomination for the United Nations Public Service Award clearly state that self-nominations - "when the institution being nominated and the institution making the nomination are the same" - are not accepted. But the Chief Minister's staff...

-Down to Earth     Rural development minister shares concerns of activists at launch of Lancet series; stresses community role in fight against malnutrition India needs to be careful when it comes to agriculture-based nutrition as it opens the door for advocacy for transgenic food, said Jairam Ramesh, Union rural development minister, at the launch of the Lancet Series on Maternal and Child Nutrition. Ramesh was the chief guest at the programme on June...