-The Hindu Japan has given United Nations children's fund UNICEF a grant of 120 million Yen, the equivalent to Rs. 7.2 crore, for buying vaccines, supplies, equipment and services in 2012 to ensure India remains free of polio virus. Japan's Ambassador to India Akitaka Saiki and UNICEF India Representative Karin Hulshof signed the Exchange of Note at a ceremony in the Japanese Embassy here. Shinichi Yamanaka, Chief Representative, Japan International Cooperation Agency,...

The 'Food Security' Bill falls flat as its content does not match its aspirations A disconnect runs through the nomenclature, preamble, objectives and content of the National Food Security Bill, 2011. The Preamble goes beyond the Title and states that the Bill provides “for food and nutritional security in human life cycle approach, by ensuring access to adequate quantity of quality food at affordable price….” Even on cursory reading, it is...

Travelling in rural India always yields rich insights into how poor women struggle to provide that little extra, in terms of food, for the family meal. It was in the village of Vijaypura – in the drought prone Bundelkhand region of Uttar Pradesh – that I came across Bharati, a 39-year-old farm woman and homemaker, working her everyday magic by laying out slices of potato and whole green chillies on the...

According to the WHO, TB is the third leading cause of death for women aged 15-44 worldwide.   When did we last consider TB as one of India’s biggest health problems? To refresh memories, here are a few forgotten facts about TB in India: one of the leading causes of death in India, TB kills one person every two minutes and 750 people every day. The direct and indirect annual costs of...

Punctuality audit ordered by the Chief Secretary of the Delhi government last year opened the Pandora’s Box on poor attendance records of government officials. Documents obtained under an RTI filed by Pratidhi show that nodal departments had large numbers of their staff members missing, on most surprise checks. Chief secretary P K Tripathi had ordered the audit last June after writing to heads of all departments that they must conduct at...