The Jharia mines in Jharkhand's Dhanbad district produce the best quality coking coal (used in blast furnaces) in India. However, the area, mostly inhabited by tribals, has been smouldering with underground mine fires for several decades now. Kalpana Pradhan reports on the health impact.

In a number of villages in Sheopur district, Madhya Pradesh, children have been dying since 2006 because of chronic malnutrition, prompting Supreme Court commissioners to call the region one of the world's malnutrition hotspots. Running schools, nutritious food, and health camps are all a rarity here, reports Sachin Jain.

There are an estimated 200,000 children with HIV who are under 15 years old in the country, while some 50,000 to 60,000 children are born with HIV each year, according to NACO estimates, despite the fact that drugs now exist to immunize such children from the threat of contamination from their mothers. Darryl D'Monte reports.

India's progress on ensuring water and sanitation for all its citizens is painfully slow; indeed, the country now lags neighbours Pakistan and Bangladesh on this front, and a long road still remains to be travelled. Darryl D'Monte reports on a recent meet to discuss the challenges.

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.

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.

Tamilnadu leads the country in nutritional interventions and yet has alarming levels of hunger in children. Research indicates that is a very likely cause of poor schooling achievement and drop-out rates, reports Krithika Ramalingam.

NGOs have fared better than the government in tackling iron deficiency in poor children. Activists, policy analysts and funders want a convergence of various departments as opposed to boxing nutrition into the health-sector alone. Krithika Ramalingam completes her two-part inquiry.

Mental illness is an isolating experience which shuts off those affected from experiencing the fun and laughter of everyday life. Kolkata Sanved is working to change that, writes Shoma Chatterji.

Mental illness is an isolating experience which shuts off those affected from experiencing the fun and laughter of everyday life. Kolkata Sanved is working to change that, writes Shoma Chatterji.

The main culprit for the low standards of medical education and the credibility of the regulator is government policy itself, which has consistently placed a low priority on healthcare, notes Kannan Kasturi.

The child sex ratio continues to follow the worsening trend established over four decades ago. Demographers predict that India's population will remain overly masculine for decades. Kannan Kasturi reports.

Simple interventions and sustained joint efforts by civil society groups and the local panchayat have resulted in significant improvements in communication and increase in health awareness in some of Rajasthan's most backward districts. Swapna Majumdar reports.

Kanchi Kohli raises questions on the Voluntary National Review report which shows India’s efforts to achieve seven of the seventeen Sustainable Development Goals.

Veena Poonacha's recent book on three Kodagu women chronicles a significant journey into the changing fortunes of women in India, says Geeta Seshu

An update from the Bangalore's Public Records of Operations and Finance (PROOF) campaign.

Bangalore Municipality's fourth quarter results round up and other updates from the city' Public Records of Operations and Finance (PROOF) campaign.

An update from Bangalore's PROOF (Public Records of Operations and Finance) campaign.

Anitha Pailoor profiles a large landholding family farm in Karnataka's Hassan district that switched from chemical farming to organic in the mid-nineties.

Hit by metal mining and tree cutting, the Kapotagiri hill range in Karnataka was turning barren. But in the last year, a local seer has worked with forest officials to bring back some of the green glory, reports Shivaram Pailoor.

Three generations of a farming family in Bagalkot district in Karnataka campaigned to drought-proof the fields and to conserve the soil and water. Their inspiration was a 170-year old book that until recently remained only in manuscript form. Shree Padre reports on the enviable results.

Should Bangalore and its surrounding municipalities be merged into a single jurisdiction, as the state's politicians are now proposing to do? The Constitutional standard as well as Bangalore's abysmal record of administering even the core metropolis both argue against centralisation. The India Together editorial.

It's 'ready to serve' and like a soft drink bottle or tetra pack, you can take it inside any office, drink and then dispose. Sold with the brand name Tender Fresh, 1500 – 2000 tender coconuts every day are reaching a clientele that reads like the who's who of Bangalore's software companies. Shree Padre reports.

A three day festival of a special tender mango called appe midi held last month in Shimoga, Karnataka attracted 6000 visitors. The festival showcased a range of preparations including popular pickles, and gave a filip to the conservation of this wild mango variety. Shree Padre reports.

Bagalkot district in Karnataka is today emerging as a model for how AIDS awareness can make all the difference in stemming the disease. It is also showing how it is not impossible to create an atmosphere where HIV positive people can continue to live with freedom, dignity and hope. Ramesh Menon reports.

Recent research has shown that computer/digital technologies can help children with autism (and other disabilities) learn and communicate better. A computer training workshop for parents and children was held recently at Bangalore. Shuchi Grover reports.

A 3-acre pond dug in the Yenepoya Medical College 15 kms from Mangalore is catching run-off from about 15 acres of the campus and from an equal area of their neighbourhood. It has already saved the institution a substantial sum on getting water from outside. Shree Padre reports.

Over the years, nationalised banks have had to buckle up and polish their looks to serve new generation customers and meet stiff competition from the private sector. But the personal touch, valuable to many customers, has been lost, laments Sudha Narasimhachar a former PSU-banker.

Rainwater harvesting need not be limited to household purposes. It can be successfully implemented to solve water problems in commercial establishments too, as demonstrated by an automobile dealer agency in Mangalore. Shree Padre has more.

Post October floods in North Karnataka, Dalits find themselves in a greater predicament. A century of struggle for equal rights and worse, fundamental faith in human progress, is at stake, writes Savita Hiremath.

Karnataka's Human Rights Commission's work suffers from many weaknesses - the composition, manner of operations, and the lack of force of its recommendations to the Government. Swagata Raha writes.

The grant of close to 10000 acres of forest land in Chitradurga district for non-forestry purposes threatens the ecology as well as the means of subsistence of local communities, leading irate villagers to decide to boycott the impending State Assembly elections. Malini Shankar reports.

There are two spheres of politics being played out in India at present. One is patronage, and the second, aspirational. During the just concluded Karnataka assembly elections, both were seen. More and more people are waking up to the aspirational one, writes Subramaniam Vincent

As environmental clearance on the proposed Tadri port in Karnataka is awaited, Dina Rasquinha and Aarthi Sridhar discuss how assumed future benefits of the port have been projected in complete disregard of the natural, environmental gifts that the region enjoys.

As Maharashtra takes steps to ensure domestic workers receive a living wage, Kalpana Sharma notes that this is about more than livelihood, it's about affirming the humanity of all people.

A multimedia curriculum developed by a Mumbai non-profit aims to have students critically explore the relationships between women, beauty and advertising. Geeta Seshu reports.

Rasika Dhavse reports about success in self-determination and natural resource conservation at a Maharashtra village.

Cautiously, but with conviction, some farmers are switching to organic farming, and bidding goodbye to the pesticide-driven harvests of the Green Revolution. Ramesh Menon reports.

A round table gathering of citizens and planners has identified ways to improve the city's transportation services. If successful, this initiative could serve as a model for active participation by residents in solving a problem every metropolitan area faces. Pankaj Sekhsaria reports.

Not least because affordable rental housing in Bombay is an urban myth, the jobs we invite our fellow Indians to fill so that we can have all those good things of a booming economy, are filled by people who have little choice but to live in slums. And then we raze those slum homes. Cavalier, says Dilip D'Souza.

Despite a strongly held belief to the contrary, Maharashtra's farmers have never demanded free power. And the suicides in Vidharbha were certainly not linked to this issue. P Sainath finds that the region is really paying the price of political power.

Many farmers deep in debt are trying to find a way out through playing bhishi (chit funds). Denied bank loans and desperate for credit to run their farms and for other needs, they take huge risks. The results are usually tragic. P Sainath continues his series on Vidharbha's crisis.

The Bhagwan Datta mandir in Belkhed, Akola, was built by Dalits when they were still Hindus. It was ostensibly the focus of the fiery violence there earlier this month. The real reasons? Caste, the decline of organised Dalit politics, the crisis in agriculture, and wage conflicts - all played a role, writes P Sainath.

When an unexpectedly high number of people sought work recently under Maharashtra's Employment Guarantee Scheme, a District Collector decided to investigate. Her quest unearthed wide-spread fraud in the implementing agency, but also roused political forces determined to thwart her. Surekha Sule reports.

Ten months after his father ended his life, Madhav toils from 6 am to 8 pm to herd the cattle of a big farmer for a paltry Rs 20 a day. Education? Forget it. In village after Vidarbha village where farmers have committed suicide, children have eventually dropped out of schools to take up the plough and work like beasts of burden, reports Jaideep Hardikar.

"Of course I would like to be married to a nice boy and have a small family. Who doesn't?" asks Ganga Khatale, 31, with a fleeting twinkle. Amidst a desperate situation of suicides that even pushed two young girls to take their lives over marriage tensions, Ganga seems courageous in her hope. Varada Hardikar reports.

While the sheer scale of the flooding in Mumbai last year made relief operations difficult, there was still much that the government could have done, but failed to do. The citizens themselves, were far more resourceful and sensitive to the plight of others, writes Darryl D'Monte, who served on the Concerned Citizens' Commission.

Amongst a number of other problems, this village in Sangli district, Maharashtra, was ridden with alcoholism and disease for over two decades. Since 2001, that began to change. Kavthepiran made a turnaround, banned alcoholism, and won a national award for 100 per cent sanitation this year. Vinita Deshmukh reports.

There is now a growing body of opinion against soft drinks in particular and fast food in general being marketed to children through the media and directly in schools. A number of private schools in Mumbai have already stopped sales of colas in their canteens. Darryl D'Monte has more.

When the Maharashtra state government started punishing moneylenders in response to rising farmer suicides in Vidarbha, hundreds of cotton farmers complained. "Who will give us credit now?" they asked. Third in his series, Jaideep Hardikar records the deep-rooted factors for the dominance of the moneylender in Vidarbha.