Mindchanging strip

En chemin elle rencontre (On the way, she met), a collection of comic strip stories tackling the issue of violence against women edited by Marie Moinard, director of the small publishing company Des ronds dans l’O, was officially launched with Amnesty International France on International Women’s Day.

Osteoporosis connection

CHILDREN who attain puberty early may have less chances of getting osteoporosis later in life. This information may help Indians take precautionary steps, as one in every three women above 45 years has osteoporosis, a survey conducted by Arthritis Foundation of India states.

Reserved for no one

The rapidly changing demography of Jharkhand, a state carved out of Bihar in 2000, has given a disturbing twist to the panchayat elections held in the region after more than three decades. Perhaps for the first time in the country, there were no candidates even to file nominations in a large number of panchayat seats reserved for members of the Scheduled Tribes (ST). No nomination was filed for almost 2,000 posts in the first three rounds of the five-phased panchayat elections.

Reaching for the sun

Two bone-rattling kilometres on a brick-cobbled road, beyond the market and the grid, past the flooded paddy fields lit intermittently by fireflies in the twilight is where the three Chowdhury brothers live, their homes awash in the white radiance of CFL bulbs. This is solar country, on the island of Mehindiganj in south Bangladesh.

Birth control pangs

THE Union health ministry is again considering introducing injectable contraceptives in the family planning programme. The ministry has asked its Drug Technical Advisory Body (DTAB) to allow use of Depot Medroxyprogesterone Acetate (DMPA) in the programme. An earlier attempt to introduce it was withdrawn in 1995 after Supreme Court’s intervention.

How women seized NREGA

Unique features of the public wage programme turn it into a magnet for women

From the blurbs

The Asian Elephant in Captivity, A Field Study by Fred Kurt and Marian E Garai, Foundation Books Rs 695

Rise And Rise Of MFIs

The total demand for micro-credit in the country has been estimated at Rs 50,000 crore. The Reserve Bank of India (RBI) estimates that in 256 of India’s 626 districts the credit gap is at least 95 per cent or more. Most mfis are concentrated in these districts, including two of the country’s largest—Spandana Spoorthy Innovative Financial Services Limited and Swayam Krishi Sangam (SKS) Microfinance.

Stalk soup

One of the great acumen of those living close to nature is that they know exactly when nature offers a gift.

Science and Environment - Briefs

BIOLOGY Yellow pigment clue to evolution Bilirubin, responsible for the yellowish tinge in the skin, eyes and nails of jaundice patients, has for the first time been identified in plants. The pigment was discovered in Strelitzia reginae Aiton, commonly know as the Bird of Paradise plant. It is indigenous to South Africa and known for its orange and blue inflorescence.