The budget for the ministry of health and family welfare at Rs 25,154 crore for 2010-11 accounts for just 0.36% of GDP, which is almost the same as last year’s level of 0.35% of GDP in 2009-10 revised estimates.

In a country report on India to the UN Human Rights Council, the Asian Legal Resource Centre has said that Madhya Pradesh is facing extreme hunger, malnutrition and distress migration. 

The Government of India instructed all state governments to ensure that the accessibility related provision of the UN Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (UNCRPD) is implemented with special priority and in a time-bound manner.

The National Commission for Women (NCW) has signed an agreement with the United Nations Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to tackle trafficking of women in the country.

India’s food inflation climbed again to hit nearly 18%, new figures released by the commerce ministry showed on February 11, 2010. Annual food inflation jumped to 17.94 % for the final week of January, up from 17.56 % the previous week. This announcement has come just days after Prime Minister Manmohan Singh said that the worst of the country’s food price inflation was over.

The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) has warned that India’s annual e-waste production will increase to 800,000 tonnes by 2012. ‘During 2005, 146,800 tonnes of e-waste was generated in the country, which is expected to increase to 800,000 by 2012,’ a statement of the environment ministry said.

Environment Minister Jairam Ramesh announced on February 9, 2010 that there would be no commercial release of Bt brinjal, the first genetically modified edible crop in India, as there was no clear consensus on the subject among Indian scientists.

South Korean Posco’s Rs 54,000-crore steel project in Orissa may begin within the next four to five months, after land acquisition and regulatory issues are resolved, Union Minister for Steel Virbhadra Singh said on January 25, 2010.

A model degree college will be set up in 374 educationally backward districts across the country where the Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) for higher education is less than the national GER.

In an effort to address the problem of acute shortage of doctors and health workers for mental health disorders, the central government, on January 20, 2010, announced a health scheme that will produce 1,756 mental health professionals, including 520 doctors, every year.

Minister for New and Renewable Energy Farooq Abdullah has announced that all new central government buildings will have to be eco-friendly.

The Union ministry of information and broadcasting has signed a grant of permission agreement to establish, maintain and operate a community radio station at Tamil Nadu Agricultural University.

Himachal Pradesh is set to witness another green revolution with the approval of a Rs 267 crore project funded by the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) for promotion of agriculture, says an IANS report.

The World Bank has approved an International Development Association (IDA) credit of US $100 million as additional financing for a poverty reduction programme in Andhra Pradesh that has raised incomes of millions of rural women since its inception in 2003. This is the second additional financing for this project and it will help scale up the impressive achievements to date, the Bank announced on December 22, 2009.

The climate change conference held between December 7 and 18, 2009 in the Danish capital ended with a non-binding agreement between the United States and the four BASIC countries – Brazil, South Africa, India and China.