Infant mortality in India: Over 3 lakh die within 24 hours of taking birth
The disturbing numbers in the report say that 29 per cent of the newborn deaths worldwide happen only in India. The report, published after survey of 186 countries, says that South Asia (with 24 per cent of the world's population) records 40 per cent of the world's first-day deaths.

Food Security Bill a step towards hunger eradication: KV Thomas
‘The day is not far off when India will be known the world over for this important step towards eradication of hunger, malnutrition and resultant poverty,’ asserted Minister of Consumer Affairs, Food and Public Professor KV Thomas with regard to the National Food Security Bill. It will lead to massive PDS reforms including doorstep delivery of food

Solar energy: Pay-as-you-go model makes it affordable for rural
People in many emerging markets earn under $10 a day and often spend 30 per cent of their income on inefficient, dirty and expensive kerosene for lighting. That adds up to $38 billion a year for lighting and $10 billion for cell phone charging. Hence, there is likely a $100 billion global opportunity for small-scale distributed energy solutions...

Child marriage: Govt working on a national plan to prevent it
Accepting that ‘child marriages continue to take place at some places in Rajasthan, Haryana and Uttar Pradesh,’ and that ‘it is also prevalent in West Bengal,’ Women and Child Development Minister of Krishna Tirath has assured that a national action plan is being prepared to prevent child marriages

Centre tells states to mind water conservation and sewage disposal for project approval
‘We are building it in, we have asked all states to build it in their master plans — water conservation and sewage. In all building plans that they sanction, they must ensure that it is a part of their master plans...

Vidya Balan endorses Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan
‘We are so far removed from the realities of the rural environment, that when I read the statistics about sanitation I did not want to lose the opportunity to be a part of this movement,' said actor Vidya Balan on being appointed as a Sanitation Ambassador who stands in support of Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan.

Pre-school education: India shows 100 per cent-plus growth in enrolment over 9 years
The number of children enrolled in nursery and kindergarten in South Asia has nearly doubled over the last decade with 47 per cent children enrolling in pre-primary programs in 2009 as against only 25 per cent in 2000...

CM seeks USAID support to build houses for Delhi’s poor
I don't know whether the USAID will help us in this regard. But I would want them to assist in building houses for economically weaker sections of the society. There are shanties all over Delhi and we have to take care of them as well. We have to build them houses...'

Ramesh announces Rs 990 crore for women empowerment
If all the 2.40 lakh gram sabhas in the country were to employ women coordinators to work for issues related to women's development, then an approximate budget of Rs 2,500 crore would be needed...

Social audit of welfare schemes not taken seriously, says Jairam Ramesh
Social audit must be done every year by every village council. It is not being done. It is not being done not just in Manipur, it has not been done anywhere in the country except in Andhra Pradesh. No state in India has taken social audit seriously...