Dwindle, peak and pine
"HEALTH for all by the year 2000" was the proclaimed objective of the Primary Health Care Conference held at Alma-Ata in 1978 under the aegis of …
Pregnant with meaning
FAR from the media hoopla, the developing world is quietly undergoing a reproductive revolution. According to a report released by the World …
Flood plains of India
India receives an annual rainfall of 400 million hectare metres, of which 75 per cent is received in four months. Floods generally follow, …
The US learns that green laws make sense after all
Make no mistake, US President George W Bush's office has conceded that green laws make sound economic sense. Although the White House reiterated …
Blow to anti-AIDS campaign as condom turns taboo subject
The paanwallah-doubling-up-as-a-condom-vendor ad has been taken off the air. Instead, Doordarshan will show a village council member warning …
Children of a lesser State
A rare killer disease, Japanese encephalitis, has been annually and invariably breaking out in eastern Uttar Pradesh, India. This year, so far, 3,…
How MGNREGA blew Rs 10,853 crore
The “little known” success story of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) has unfolded as a disaster. …
The small big polluter
Small-scale industries: Where regulations are meaningless and pollution control an unaffordable luxury. Can they leapfrog to cost-effective …
Clash of the cyberworlds
In an increasingly digital world, the issue of Internet freedom and governance has become hugely contested. Censorship and denial of access occur …
Dirty fuel
CSE's Clean Air campaigners ANUMITA ROYCHOWDHURY and CHIRAG SHAH expose the dirty, intelligent and systematic business of fuel adulteration:…
Flat in 20 days
Global climatic anomalies allied with local weather conditions produced the most freakish hailstorms in central and north India in February and …
Desperately seeking skills & jobs
India has a youth bulge in its population, accounting for the largest number of young working age people in the world. This demographic …
Organic thread
Even as Bt cotton invaded Indian fields in the past few years, some farmer groups kept pushing for organic cotton. In 2009-10, production in …
Troubled Beautiful Minds
They are there—each residential area has its mentally disturbed people; each family has anecdotes of crazy relatives. Nobody wants to …
Desperate for gas
Gas is the cleanest of fossil fuels and also more efficient and cheaper to use. Yet, in India, there has been no policy focus on this fuel, …
Ensuring human survival
"The future of human civilisation could depend on our ability to defend and make sustainable use of biological diversity," he adds. FAO recently …
The statistician who "planned" India
P C Mahalanobis can rightly be called the father of Indian statistics. Today, in the year of his birth centenary, he is remembered not only as …
A wealth of anecdotal material
GLIMPSES OF INDIA'S STATISTICAL HERITAGE Edited by: J K Ghosh, S K Mitra and K.R. Parthasarathy Publisher: Wiley Eastern Limited, Delhi Price : Rs 60
Dated data
THE DEVELOPMENT OF INTERNATIONAL PRINCIPLES AND PRACTICES OF WILDLIFE RESEARCH AND MANAGEMENT: ASIAN AND AMERICAN APPROACHES Edited by Stephen H …
Not too many people
Demographers say world population will decline and one-fifth of it would be above 50 years by 2050
Are your organs in the right place?
Scientists have hit on a gene that decides exactly where internal organs will be positioned in the body of a mouse
The dark side of knowledge
Beyond research spending, the gap in scientific output between developed and developing countries is glaring
Spilling doom
As vast amount of oil is spilt into the ocean, threatening sensitive marine and coastal biology, operation clean-up has turned out to be a large …
Poor amenities
Basic services can work against poverty but are usually elusive, shows the latest World Development Report
How clean is my country?
A collation of statistics on population density, water, sanitation and hygiene for 100 countries throws up disturbing trends