One in four children malnourished worldwide — a health impact as big as AIDS
Child malnutrition has an impact equivalent to that of the AIDS pandemic, one writer says, commenting on a new report from Save the Children which says hunger and malnutrition cause 2.6 million...
View ArticleKentaro Toyama, geek heretic, on “The Two Indias”
Kentaro Toyama is a Seattle man on a mission. A computer and information scientist who co-founded and ran Microsoft Research in India, Toyama has become something of a ‘geek heretic‘ who is now devoted...
View ArticleBrazil, China and other “emerging” nations want to take the lead on aid and...
The group of nations known (by wonks anyway) as BRICS — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are fast moving away from being recipients of foreign assistance and toward taking a more active...
View ArticleSeattle Times profile of Landesa’s work with women farmers in India
The Seattle Times, with support from The Seattle International Foundation (also one of my primary funders), has produced a beautiful and in-depth report on the work of Landesa promoting land rights for...
View ArticleSinking BRICS? How the emerging nations may, or may not, tip the global balance
A meeting of the major middle-income countries in South Africa garnered plenty of attention, but produced little in terms of actual policies. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa (BRICS)...
View ArticleDrug industry loses in India – fight over ‘patents vs poor’ to continue
The Indian Supreme Court has rejected a drug patent application by the international pharmaceutical firm Novartis, an event that merited coverage by the New York Times, BBC and many other media – news...
View ArticleIndian slum activists are Revolutionary Optimists at Melinda Gates TED talk
Like most TED talks, it was fun with a lot of broad and encouraging statements without too many complicating details. The webcast itself was 'negatively disrupted' (lots of jokes on Twitter about this)...
View ArticleRape of Five-Year-Old Will Test Police Accountability in India’s New Law
A 24-year old man in Delhi has been arrested in connection with the brutal rape of a five-year-old girl, his neighbor, whom he kidnapped and held for days without food. The young girl remains in...
View ArticleDid India beat Big Pharma in drug patents war?
So has India won the patent war with Big Pharma? Not really. As I wrote when the Novartis ruling came down, India won a battle but the war likely continues. Continue reading →
View ArticleFlash floods and landslides in India kill thousands, rains stall rescue effort
Soldiers rescue stranded people after heavy rains in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand Sky Early monsoon rains in the northern Indian state of Uttarakhand have led to a series of flash floods and...
View ArticleEmerging markets turn into a pumpkin for investors
WSJ When the global economy took a massive hit in late 2008 it was the emerging markets, countries like India, China and Brazil, that picked up the slack for the older Western powers. These countries...
View ArticleData show indoor air pollution a major killer of kids
In India, more than 100,000 children died as a result of household air pollution that same year. Burning solid fuels such as wood and dung for cooking is a leading risk factor for lower respiratory...
View ArticleTaking aim at Nobel prizewinner Amartya Sen’s food policy
Amartya Sen Stefano Corso Amartya Sen is one of the most important development thinkers. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for economics in 1998, a recognition of his important contribution to the...
View ArticleSplash founder explains why he wants to kill off his charity
Eric Stowe wants to kill off his charity. The founder of Splash, a Seattle-based organization that brings clean water to communities, defines the success of his work as reaching a point where everyone...
View ArticleBRICS rapid growth slowing down, may have been unique
The main feature of the new issue of The Economist is on the emerging economies. Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa make up the group better known as the BRICS. In the wake of the 2008...
View ArticleBehind the headlines: Poisonings in India
Guest post by Katie Leach-Kemon, a policy translation specialist from the University of Washington’s Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation. When 23 Indian children who ate meals provided by a...
View ArticleIrrigation leads to better crops and more malaria
An irrigation canal in the northwestern Indian state of Gujarat. Andres Baeza Mosquitoes and plants thrive where there is water. Farmers in arid regions who use irrigation systems to collect water also...
View ArticleRupee Down: Is India a sinking BRIC?
Wen-Yan King The breaks are screeching on the once throttling Indian economy. The national currency, the rupee, hit a new all-time low against the US dollar today. Five years ago the country was...
View ArticleDoes TV ownership in India correspond to better family planning?
(Researchers) noted that the new diet of game shows, soap operas, and reality shows instantly became the villagers’ main source of information about the outside world—especially about India’s emerging...
View ArticleSave the Children India distances itself from controversial abuse campaign
A new ad campaign in India is using venerated Hindu goddesses to call attention to gender-based violence. It caught a lot of attention when it launched two weeks ago, but the group behind the campaign...
View Article