The paper reviews the trends over three decades in the consumption of cereals, calories and micronutrients and nutritional status based on anthropometric measures using the data sets of NSS, NNMB and NFHS. It provides an explanation for the slow growth of nutrient intake and slow reduction in...

The purpose of the ASER 2009’s rapid assessment survey in rural areas is twofold: (i) to get reliable estimates of the status of children’s schooling and basic learning (reading and arithmetic level) at the district level; and (ii) to measure the change in these basic learning and...

If the Union Budget 2014 is anything to go by , the fiscal policy of the new government shows no change. In fact, there is an amazing continuity with the previous few Budgets. Significantly however, there are signs that the Union government appears to be abdicating its responsibility towards the...

This paper addresses issues related to public private partnerships that can enable delivery of comprehensive health care to rural communities.

The reasons for the low levels of utilization of basic health services may be household income, high illiteracy and ignorance, and a host of traditional factors. An attempt is made to discuss the issues associated with the demand and supply of the five measures of maternity care-antenatal care,...

The study tries to focus on the violation of human rights that occur in prostitution. It holds that it is the responsibility of the state to protect these human rights and address the fundamental structural causes of this trade. The study also looked into the complementary role of NGOs, civil...

The excellent systematic review in this week’s PLoS Medicine by Paul Garner and colleagues focuses discussion on this critical issue. Their finding of poor quality in both the public and private sectors along different dimensions (competence is similar in both, but the private sector is...