-BBC   Aids-related deaths are at the lowest level since their 2005 peak, down 21%, figures from UNAids suggest. Globally, the number of new HIV infections in 2010 was 21% down on that peak, seen in 1997, according to UNAids 2011 report. The organisation says both falls have been fuelled by a major expansion in access to treatment. Its executive director, Michel Sidibe, said: "We are on the verge of a significant breakthrough." He added: "Even...

While higher income levels mean countries have more money to improve women's health, ultimately it comes down to how governments decide to spend the money We know that economic growth and human development do not always go hand in hand, as evidenced by the very different position of countries in per capita GDP rankings compared with human development rankings. But the link between health conditions and economic growth is usually thought...

Social activists up in arms against proposed reforms; impact on procurement feared   The Union Government's new move to give primacy in the revised draft of the National Food Security Bill, 2011, to controversial schemes like cash transfers and issuance of food coupons to identified public distribution system beneficiaries in lieu of foodgrain entitlements has got social activists up in arms. The scheme was introduced under ‘Schedule II' in the initial draft of...

The growing public support for Anna Hazare-style protests, led by unelected campaigners, bode ill for Indian democracy, distinguished academic and Labour Peer Bhikhu Parekh warned while delivering the 2011 Jawaharlal Nehru Memorial Lecture here on Monday. The Indian democracy, he said, was in danger of losing legitimacy if elected politicians failed to meet public expectations and people, in frustration, started mobilising around “leaders” who had no democratic mandate but could have...

An unprecedented economic growth during the last decade has also seen increasing malnutrition, hunger and starvation amongst certain sections of society. India ranks 66 in the Food and Agriculture Organisation’s (FAO’s) World Hunger Index of 88 countries (Inter-national Food Policy Research Institute). More than 200 million people in this country are denied the right to food. One-third of all underweight children (57 million) in the world due to lack of...