Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...

-The Hindustan Times   Female foeticide, infanticide and human trafficking make India the world's 4th most dangerous country for women, with Afghanistan's violence and poverty taking it to the top spot, followed by Congo due to horrific levels of rape, a Thomson Reuters Foundation expert poll said on Wednesday. Pakistan and Somalia ranked third and fifth, respectively, in the global Survey of perceptions of threats ranging from domestic abuse and economic discrimination...

-The Hindu   In a step towards empowering visually impaired persons in Himachal Pradesh, National Federation of the Blind is all set to open a school in Shimla. The school, which was approved by the National Federation of the Blind, shall be opened in Rohroo area of Shimla, an official said. In north India the Special Blind Schools are already working in Kapurthala in Punjab and Ambala in Haryana, and now Himachal shall...

Obituaries for the PDS system are a bit premature, based as they are on outdated data and presumptions. Despite flaws like pilfering and leakages, the system shows signs of improvement in certain states. States have demonstrated the political will to invest in the PDS, by putting in state resources to make it work. Cash transfers (CTs) are increasingly advocated as an alternative to the Public Distribution System (PDS). The proponents of...

-The United Nations   The world will increasingly experience water scarcity for agriculture as a result of climate change, a phenomenon that will affect the livelihoods of rural communities and the food security of urban dwellers, the United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) said in a Survey released today. The impact of climate change on the availability of water include reduction in river run-off and aquifer recharges in the Mediterranean and...