Children attended a free school in New Delhi, Nov. 7, 2012. I got a headache trying to figure out how much money the Indian government plans to spend on health this year. There are multiple budget documents, and the figures given don’t always seem to match. But one thing was clear: spending on health and education looks set to increase. “Health for all and education for all remain our priorities,” […]
onsidering his fondness for painting as a hobby, Salman Khan surely knows how to appreciate a good painting. The actor recently attended an art camp organized by artist Rouble Nagi that showcased work of underprivileged kids. So amazed and impressed was Salman with the drawings of these kids that he handpicked around 10 drawings and told Rouble that he would like to use them as a part of his Being […]
Justice delayed is justice denied, and if that is the case then the 21-year-old victim of a horrific acid attack can rightly complain that justice doesn’t prevail in the city. Four months after her husband threw acid on her face while she was asleep, the police for one have not arrested the accused yet and, secondly, the charges applied against him are lenient. Police have applied sections of causing grievous […]
A part of the brain’s ability to shield itself from the destructive damage caused by a stroke has been explained by researchers. It has been known for more than 85 years that some brain cells could withstand being starved of oxygen. Scientists,writing in the journal Nature Medicine, have shown how these cells switch into survival mode. They hope to one-day find a drug which uses the same trick to protect […]
After two decades of wondering what to write on forms in the `What is your mother tongue’ column, I finally stopped apologising to myself and the world for not knowing any of my native languages and declared openly in the answer space – ‘English.’ But it is only five years ago, when I helped my closest friend Pascal set up our NGO for street children in Delhi, called Tara; that […]
BANGALORE: Azim Premji, chairman of the Azim Premji Foundation, announced on Friday that he has transferred 295.5 million equity shares representing 12% of the total shares of Wipro Ltd, held by certain entities controlled by him, to an irrevocable trust. With this transfer (valued at about Rs 12,300 crore based on current market price), the trust’s shareholding in Wipro will go up to about 19.93%. This trust will utilize the […]
In a horrific act of violence, three young sisters were raped and murdered in India, police told reporters Tuesday. The bodies of the girls, who went missing on Feb. 14, were discovered two days later in a well near their native village in Maharashtra’s Bhandara district. According to the Press Trust of India, the deaths of the three girls — ages 11, 9 and 6 — sparked an outcry from […]
Thirteen-year-old Sanjay Chhetri has a recurring fear: that one day, the dark, dank mine where he works will cave in and bury him alive. Like thousands of children in India’s remote northeast, Chhetri begins work in the middle of the night, ready to dig pits, squat through narrow tunnels and cut coal shards. At four feet six inches, the skinny teenager is the perfect fit for a job in the […]
ponsored by: Dalit Freedom Network USA Every day, 1.3 million people in India (of which 97% are Dalit women and children) are forced to clean human excrement with their bare hands in a practice known as manual scavenging. On June 17, 2011, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh of India, in a moment of historical precedent, called manual scavenging “one of the darkest blots on [India’s] development process” and asked all State […]
On New Year’s day, India joined a select band of countries where food containing genetically modified (GM) content must be labelled as such. But it has done so without any preparation. The labelling of foods with GM ingredients has been a long-held demand of consumer groups, but the way it has been done in India has left them disappointed. The Legal Metrology (Packaged Commodities) Rules, 2011, which came into effect […]
