With the expiry of the MDGs which guided global development till 2015, the international community is now negotiating Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) for the period 2016-2030. Prahlad Shekhawat summarises the ensuing debates and explores a way forward.

Women of a small village in Uttar Pradesh are weaving not just colorful yarn but also communal harmony in their region. Swapna Majumdar reports.

Looking into what’s happening in the State of Karnataka, Kathyayini Chamaraj discusses the
housing needs and rights of the urban poor.

Pushpa Achanta writes about the challenges and aspirations of people in Kashmir on Kashmiri Women’s Day of Resistance which is observed today.

Severe shortages of power and water are predicted for the coming months in much of the North. Himanshu Thakkar looks beyond the 'natural phenomena' that are blamed.

Down to Earth, a magazine of the New Delhi based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) regularly carries stories of little-known men and women green crusaders. Compiling a number of those stories of struggle, CSE has recently published an impressive book. Darryl D'Monte reviews Agenda Unlimited, 2005.

Through his new book, Arvind Verma makes a positive contribution to police scholarship. Some of Verma's analysis is in sharp contrast to prevalent wisdom which ignores the negative role of police leadership in the current system. K S Subramanian reviews The Indian Police: A Critical Evaluation.

Recently published by the Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment, The Leapfrog Factor: Clearing the Air in Asian Cities is an excellent reference on a contentious subject. The book looks at pollution caused by transport in our cities and the range of environmental, economic, social and technical solutions available, says Darryl D'Monte.

A trickle-down approach that sees justice through the lens of economic growth is the basis for many of its arguments, omissions and conclusions. As a result, it is of use mainly to practitioners of the law, who encounter some of the issues raised in detailed ways. Bikram Jeet Batra reviews Judicial Reforms in India: Issues and Aspects.

A growing world population has led to rising demand for fresh water to ensure a growing supply of food and to meet rising nutrition demands. Where will this water come from? A new publication co-sponsored by CGIAR sheds some light on the narrowing options. Sudhirendar Sharma reviews the report.

Scathing in his indictment of state holdings in television, Nalin Mehta fails to note that commercial uses too can restrict its social potential. Romit Chowdhury reviews India on Television.

Water and the Laws in India is not always consistent or complete, but this does not detract from its usefulness and importance in examining important issues. Shripad Dharmadhikary reviews the book.

Gurcharan Das's new book is bound to ride the recent wave of writing by Indians about Indians. The evidence for the core premise of the book, however, is thin. R Rajagopalan reviews India Grows at Night.

Veteran journalist Paranjoy Guha Thakurta's forthcoming book tentatively titled Gas Wars: Ambani brothers and the fight for India's natural resources, co-authored by Subir Ghosh delves into the unholy world of crony capitalism in India, writes Satarupa Bhattacharya.

Dr Ilina Sen’s association with Chhattisgarh and her deep, empathetic understanding of its society and culture have come lyrically alive in Inside Chhattisgarh: A Political Memoir. Freny Manecksha reviews the book.

Sunanda Bhat’s award-winning Have You Seen The Arana is deeply relevant in today’s world, as it explores the deep connectedness between man and nature, and the struggle of little-known people to preserve it in the face of many onslaughts. Shoma A Chatterji reviews the film.

The rape of a schizophrenic girl at NIMHANS reveals a wide gap between the rhetoric and reality of mental health care in India.

Allegedly in the midst of a major reform effort, the Uttar Pradesh healthcare system shows itself to be woefully unprepared for an outbreak of dengue. Abhijit Das reports.

This IIT Kharagpur professor's vision is to remove the digital divide between the visually impaired and the sighted world. Rasika Dhavse profiles Anupam Basu and his innovation, Sparsha.

What plans and promises on 'health for all' have the NDA and the Congress offered to the electorate this election cycle? Abhijit Das takes a closer look.

These National Human Rights Commission's hearings on the Right to Healthcare are bringing out hundreds of poor citizens' experiences of being refused public health care. Gone are the days when citizens endured this with a fatalism born out of years of hopelessness, writes Abhijit Das.

Medicine prices nationwide are likely to go up soon, including at public hospitals and dispensaries. Domestic manufacturers will withdraw critical but cheaper medicines as India gets ready to fulfill WTO obligations. Devinder Sharma argues that this is the beginning of a scientific apartheid.

Rural public health care is choked nationwide for a number of reasons. To name two, provisioning of services is very top heavy and many major programmes continue to be conceived and run uncoordinatedly. But Abhijit Das finds promising prospects in the formation of the National Rural Health Mission.

Who can object to washing hands regularly to improve hygiene? In Kerala, the World Bank found out that it isn't enough to promote sensible messages; it's also important that the messages do not appear to be based on ulterior motives, like sales for MNC products. Darryl D'Monte reports.

Newspaper and television reports leave us thinking that India is poised to become a superpower, but a more wholesome measure of where the country is will paint a different picture. The problems are still immense, and India lags far behind the world in many ways; it is important to note this and begin tackling them, says Abhijit Das.

The Indian experience in institutionalised mental help has not been civilising. The National Human Rights Commission had issued a condemnation of the state of mental hospitals as early as six years ago. Parul Sharma notes that misguided private counselling and the lack of richer case law have compounded victims' problems.

Despite crores of rupees having been spent in name of tribal and other development programmes in one block of Palakkad district in Kerala, the region suffers from poor access to decent health care. 80 per cent of the adivasi population here are living in abject poverty. M Suchitra reports.

India is languishing in the Human Development Index recently released by the UNDP. Bangladesh has overtaken India in some vital parameters. What does this imply in terms of actual numbers? Are the Millennium Development Goals and those laid down by the Planning Commission achievable? Pavan Nair takes a look.

The WHO has warned that India would likely be hit if a bird-flu pandemic breaks out because India has large numbers of domestic ducks and the country is along major bird migratory routes originating in the East. Abhijit Das notes a few positive elements in India's readiness, but finds that much more is needed to avert disaster.

The Ministry of Mines and Minerals says it may lift the ban on asbestos mining. It is ignoring the views of exposure victims, informed recommendations of public sector medical experts, and mounting evidence of an asbestos disease epidemic emerging in developed countries. The rationale to permit mining is hollow, writes Gopal Krishna.

Recently, there has been renewed stress on compulsory iodisation, with the central government attempting to bring back a national ban on non-iodised salt. But the nature and comprehensiveness of research into iodine deficiency has never made a categorical case for a ban, finds Aparna Pallavi.

India has recently declared that it has achieved the tag of 'elimination' of leprosy as the number of cases is now just around one per 10,000 people. Still, a major challenge is to reach medicine to remote areas and tribal pockets which still battle with leprosy, and integrating the cured into society, says Ramesh Menon.

Women's gynaecological and urological organs share a close relationship, and disorders affecting one may give rise to symptoms in the other. Better care and knowledge can reduce the incidence of these problems, however, and many of the conditions are treatable. Fehmida Zakeer reports.

While it is nobody's case that iodised salt should be pushed out of the Indian market, what concerns many people's groups is the one-sided way in which iodisation is being imposed on the people of India. Aparna Pallavi concludes a two-part series into New Delhi's interest in banning non-iodised salt.

As the world marks World Menopause Day on 18 October, millions of Indian women over 45 are finding it difficult to smile through it - thanks to the lack of information and misunderstanding among them about this rather rough phase of life. Neeta Lal reports on the Delhi-based Indian Menopause Society.

The HIV epidemic has brought into focus multiple public health issues facing rural India today. In this respect, it presents us with an opportunity to deal with issues that have been neglected and even been actively ignored for too long, writes Supriya Kumar.

The proposed Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI), likely to be instituted soon, will establish five 'world class' institutes to train 1000 public health professionals every year. But just where will these new public health experts be employed? Padma Prakash on the unaddressed issues.

The mounting cost of hospital care, increasing out-of-pocket expenditure, and its catastrophic impact on family finances demand an innovative and flexible risk-pooling mechanism to provide a security net for the poor. Merely transfering the costs to the public exchequer will land the nation in a no-win situation, writes Jayaprakash Narayan.

Five years have passed after the riots, five years in which saplings have become trees and blueprints have taken the shape of buildings. But time seems to have stopped for many families and children who suffered or witnessed atrocities during the 2002 riots, altering their dreams and hopes in unlikely, distressing ways. Deepa A has more.

Recent data on health indicators suggest that while health care in Goa remains far ahead of the national average, there are many cracks in the system. Indeed, on many counts the state appears to be losing the ground gained earlier, even as new challenges loom. Rupa Chinai reports.

India is notorious for its abysmal health services leading to very high infant and maternal mortality rates. Ila Pathak provides a glimpse of how much effort it takes to get official health functionaries to perform their assigned duties with a minimal degree of seriousness.

38 babies died in one hospital in Thiruvananthapuram over the past four months, shocking a state which boasts of the lowest infant mortality rate in the country. The much discussed and extolled Kerala model of health development is ailing, reports P N Venugopal.

In July, 18 Nobel laureates met with over 500 young scientists from around the world in Germany. India sent 22 researchers. The meeting threw up many questions pertaining to the practice of scientific research in India. Varupi Jain has more.

Why would the Government of India deny a job to an individual who carries a mutation in the DNA? There is prejudice in the Indian society against individual perceived as "sexual anomalies". Vaijayanti Gupta initiates an educational discussion on the biology of sex and sexual orientations.

Statistics are staggeringly in favour of breastfeeding, and surprising as it may be, breastfeeding rates in India are dismal. Krithika Ramalingam digs deeper into the factors at play.

A new anthology AIDS Sutra has 16 renowned literary figures writing about the AIDS epidemic in India and how different communities across the country are grappling with it. Sumita Thapar has more.

The U.S. auto giants are an example of how things work in the age of unbridled corporate power. Of how the collapse of restraint on that power fractures economy and society, writes P Sainath.

No other village is more eco-friendly than this one in Andhra Pradesh. From 100-per cent toilet coverage to rain water harvesting; from soak pits in every house to clean streets. Usha Turaga-Revelli reports.

Animal farming practices that pay little heed to the welfare of domestic animals invariably lead to public health threats for humans. Swine flu is simply the most recent reminder of this, writes Darryl D'Monte.

Krithika Ramalingam