This Global status report on physical activity is WHO’s first dedicated global assessment of global progress on country implementation of policy recommendations of the Global Action Plan on Physical Activity (GAPPA) 2018-2030. It also presents an estimate of the cost to health systems of not taking action to improve physical …
We have entered an era of great hope and promise, of advancing human health and well-being and of social and economic progress. The shape of things to come can be visualised with a rough timetable. Will the new order of things reduce and eventually eliminate the inequities and disparities that …
A thin strip of land trapped between the Arabian Sea and the Kerala backwaters. This is Challanam in Ernakulam district. Freshwater used to be very scarce. Although it rains in torrents during the monsoon, the water would flow into the sea. Groundwater was useless due to ingress of saline water. …
Leftist politicians have a reputation across the world for being immensely centralised in their thinking. So, what was different in Kerala, where the major steps in the decentralisation drive have been taken by the ldf alliance? For one, the socioeconomic conditions desperately called for a change. For another, a highly …
Four years of decentralised planning have resulted in a functional division between state plans and local plans. Policy analysts say this would lead to subsequent material improvement in local life, for example, better management of agriculture and water resources. "An important change is the right focus of planning and, so, …
The future of the decentralisation process is uncertain, and the real threat comes from the bureaucracy. A wide spectrum of people - from political leaders to policy planners - share such fears. "The bureaucracy is organised, and is a great problem. Earlier there was stiff resistance from the bureaucracy to …
what makes a nation strong? Democracy? Dictatorship? What makes a people happy? Economic liberalisation? Centrally planned economy? Well, the people who know and count in today's world, seem to consider only these two alternatives. But a few fools think of the possibility of a third path. I consider myself to …
According to a new study, a romantic candlelight dinner may turn out to be more hazardous to your health. Environmental chemist Jerome Nriagu of the University of Michigan in Ann Arbor found that when burned some candles with metal wicks gave off lead. The dark, shiny metal wick cores are …
Japan is a country with a long history and an intricate culture. It has done its best to maintain its own cultural identity despite immense economic globalisation and material Westernisation. Even today less than one per cent Japanese speak English. Intrigued by the extraordinary complexity that is Japan, I took …
single mothers have been stereotyped, politicised and vilified. Some people blame them for a host of ills we find around us. In a society that is rapidly transforming with the steady growth of single parents, such impressions can play havoc with the upbringing of children as also the societal image …
till the Seventies, Goa was one of the hippie capitals of the world, with the disenchanted "flower-children" of the West living out their version of "nirvana" on a few of North Goa's golden-sand beaches. The decade between 1968-1978 was a time when the exotic locales of Goa attracted tourists in …
Young girls with close relationships with their fathers may enter puberty later than girls with distant or non-existent relationships with their father. According to Bruce Ellis of the University of Canterbury in New Zealand, good mother-daughter relationships were also found to delay puberty somewhat, but "in total, the quality of …
tiring from a way of life that enslaves us to pretentious lifestyles, habits of wasteful consumption and the dependency-syndrome for even the most basic of life's needs, this Christmas I shall leave Delhi
do you believe that money cannot buy happiness? Or that contentment cannot be equated to the acquisition of a new car or a flat closer to the sea? And do your friends laugh at your fantastical notions? Scientists have reached some conclusions that you can wave in the face of …
despite intensive research for over 50 years, very little is known about sleep. One thing, however, is clear: it is not a luxury. Everybody needs sleep. But how much sleep one needs is also not clear. No biological signal has been found so far that indicates exactly when you have …
The relentless drive towards blanket modernisation is proving to be the death knell for six tribes that inhabit the Andaman and Nicobar Islands. The islands are home to the Great Andamanese, the Onge, the Jarawas, the Sentinelse, the Nicobarese and the Shompens. According to Kalpavriksh, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), a …
each civilisation has a different attitude towards nature and wildlife. And one of the best indicators of how a culture relates to the environment is its attitude towards large carnivores, who are not only an important factor in maintaining the ecological equilibrium but also a source of potential conflicts and …
the long, winding roads leading to hill stations in the Himalayas are dotted with small towns, that act as popular stopovers for tourists, bustling with activity. These towns give an impression of a bustling economy pregnant with the promise of providing the locals a source of livelihood
nature flourishes most alone, far from the towns where (humans) reside, wrote the American philosopher Henry David Thoreau. According to him, cities do not have an ecosystem of their own. Frederic Clements, the American plant ecologist went a step further and describes habitats as a series of closed loops that …
People who live alone and have few friends are prone to early death as their hearts' responses to stress are altered, say Myriam Horsten and her colleagues at the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, Sweden. In a study conducted on 300 healthy women, the researchers found women who lived alone and …
