-Livemint.com The production of ‘mahua’ is finally entering the formal economy as new initiatives seek to upscale this indigenous drink, selling it across the country and even the globe It is a cloudy morning in Nangur village in Bastar district, Chattisgarh. It is a settlement of a little over 400 families, considered fairly large in these parts. We make a bumpy journey down a narrow, unpaved road intermittently shaded by sargi (sal)...

-Hindustan Times Instead of denial, a much bolder step would be to increase investments and strengthen delivery in key areas such as health and education, which have inter-generational impacts, and can also go a long way in removing widespread inequality. Last week, three separate global reports related to development were released: the World Bank’s Human Capital Index; the Welthungerhilfe and Concern Worldwide’s 2018 Global Hunger Index; and Oxfam International’s 2018 Commitment...

-TheWire.in The finance ministry can continue to quibble, but the stark fact is that decades of underspending in education and health may result in India wasting its demographic dividend. On October 11, the World Bank launched the latest of its country rankings: the Human Capital Index (HCI). The objective of the index is to show how low education and health outcomes – or human capital – impact productivity, growth and prosperity. The...

-The Indian Express In a statement, the Finance Ministry said the HCI score for India does not reflect the key initiatives that are being taken for developing human capital in the country. The World Bank on Thursday released its first report on Human Capital Index (HCI), which placed India at the 115th position, lower than Nepal, Sri Lanka, Myanmar and Bangladesh. Singapore topped the poll after it was highly rated for its universal...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The death of 14 children in two Delhi hospitals — 13 at Maharishi Valmiki Infectious Diseases (MVID) Hospital in north Delhi and one at Lok Nayak hospital in central Delhi — due to diphtheria over the past few weeks has once again exposed the shortcomings of India’s immunisation programme. Diphtheria, an acute infectious disease, is preventable with vaccine. However, due to the low coverage and lack of...