India’s new vaccination policy stresses increased domestic research and surveillance on local diseases; but has drawn criticism for endorsing new vaccines in the national immunisation programme without ascertaining need. The April 2011 policy, made public by India’s ministry of health and family welfare in August, provides guidelines for vaccine research and development; strengthening the evidence base for new vaccine introduction and regulation and patent issues. It highlights lack of indigenous baseline surveillance...

-Outlook   The secret behind the Ganga’s ability to self-rejuvenate its waters continues to elude discovery In 2009, when C.S. Nautiyal, now the director of Lucknow’s National Botanical Research Institute, spiked a fresh Ganga water sample with an infectious strain of Escherichia coli to test the Ganga’s reported self-healing qualities, he found that the bacteria lasted no longer than three days. He repeated the experiment with a 16-year-old sample of Ganga...

Andhra Pradesh will be the first state to use National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) funds to provide road connectivity and improve hygienic conditions in remote areas inhabited by Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe people. Rural connectivity has now been included in the permissible category of works under the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA). Following this, the state government decided to spend Rs 1,000 crore from NREGS funds to...

The Chief Minister Mr. N. Kiran Kumar Reddy is of the view that the inclusion of Rural Connectivity as one of the permissible categories of works under Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) will be a boon for rural development in the State. Providing connectivity to SC, ST and other remote habitations including providing internal roads in the SC/ST habitations are approved for implementation. The Chief Minister was informed...

A recent survey by the Municipal Corporation of Delhi (MCD) has revealed that 18% of the water supplied by Delhi Jal Board (DJB) is unfit for drinking. Every fifth person in the city is consuming contaminated water, the report indicates. The civic agency tested 616 samples from different parts of the city, of which 111 were found unfit for drinking. The worst affected areas were the south and Karol Bagh zones. In...