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Business Standard PTI India was one of the two high burden countries that achieved a 28 per cent reduction in malaria cases in 2018, according to the World Health Organisation's (WHO) World Malaria Report 2019 released on Wednesday. Malaria cases dropped by 28 per cent in 2018 compared to 2017, while there was 24 per cent decline in cases between 2016 and 2017. Despite being the highest burden country of the South-East Asia Region, India reduced its reported cases by half as compared with 2017. Bangladesh and Thailand also reported substantial decline in reported cases, the WHO said in a statement. Two high-burden-to-high-impact countries that achieved a significant reduction in malaria cases in 2018, as compared with the previous year, were India (2.6 million fewer cases) and Uganda (1.5 million fewer cases), the report stated. According to the report, an estimated 6,737,000 malaria cases and 9,620 deaths due to it were reported in India in 2018. It was 9,348,000

apnews.com By KATHY GANNON LAHORE, Pakistan (AP) — Page after page, the names stack up: 629 girls and women from across Pakistan who were sold as brides to Chinese men and taken to China. The list, obtained by The Associated Press, was compiled by Pakistani investigators determined to break up trafficking networks exploiting the country’s poor and vulnerable. The list gives the most concrete figure yet for the number of women caught up in the trafficking schemes since 2018. But since the time it was put together in June, investigators’ aggressive drive against the networks has largely ground to a halt. Officials with knowledge of the investigations say that is because of pressure from government officials fearful of hurting Pakistan’s lucrative ties to Beijing. The biggest case against traffickers has fallen apart. In October, a court in Faisalabad acquitted 31 Chinese nationals charged in connection with trafficking. Several of the women who had initially been intervie

Hindustan Times Published By: Jayashree Nandi The southwest monsoon in 2018 severely affected India, the analysis said adding that Kerala was especially affected where 324 people died because of drowning or being buried in the landslides set off by the flooding — the worst in a hundred years. India is the fifth most vulnerable country globally to climate crisis, according to a new analysis released on Wednesday. India recorded the highest deaths due to climate crisis-led disasters and the second highest amount of monetary losses in 2018, said the analysis. The Global Climate Risk Index 2020 by environmental think tank Germanwatch on the sidelines of the UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, assessed 181 countries and quantified impacts of climate crisis on them through economic losses, losses to GDP and fatalities to arrive at a ranking. The index found Japan to be the most vulnerable followed by Philippines, Germany, Madagascar and India. While the poorer co

Hindustan Times, New Delhi Published: Zia Haq The government is scouring markets in West Asia and Europe for onions, but has been able to import just a fraction of what the country needs, prolonging the worst price spiral since the 2010 crisis.  On November 22, the government contracted 6,090 tonnes of shipments from Egypt. These consignments are expected to begin arriving around December 10. On November 29, 11,000 tonne were contracted from Turkey and are expected to begin landing in January. Contracts for an additional 4,000 tonne from Turkey have been signed, a statement said on Wednesday. This shipment is expected to arrive by mid-January. Total shipments contracted for import so far stand at 21,090 tonne.  The current shortfall, however, is far larger at 160,000 metric tonne, according to a comparison of arrival figures for the vegetable in wholesale markets during October-November from a year-ago period from the National Horticulture Development Board (NHDB) database.  Re

The Times of India Published By: PTI NEW DELHI: The government's decision to launch an umbrella debt exchange-traded fund will provide a better opportunity to retail investors for participation in quality public sector bonds at an affordable cost, experts said on Wednesday. They further said the move would also help in deepening and widening the participation in the Indian corporate bond market. The Union Cabinet has approved the launch of exchange traded fund (ETF) for bonds to create an additional source of funding for Central Public Sector Enterprises (CPSEs) and state-owned financial institutions. The New Fund Offer (NFO) of this ETF is expected be to launched during December itself. Bharat Bond ETF would be the first corporate bond ETF in the country. "It's a historic occasion for retail investors as also for the Indian corporate bond market, for retail investors as they would now be able to invest in an altogether new liquid ave

The Times of India Publish By : Bharti Jain NEW DELHI: The Union cabinet on Wednesday cleared a revised Citizenship Amendment Bill (CAB), which seeks to provide a path to Indian citizenship for six minorities from Pakistan, Bangladesh and Afghanistan who entered India on or before December 31, 2014, to escape religious persecution. Such Hindu, Sikh, Christian, Parsi, Jain and Buddhist immigrants shall be eligible for Indian citizenship from the date of entry and the reworked bill is likely to be introduced in Parliament early next week. Unlike in 2016, when the CAB faced adverse numbers in Rajya Sabha, this time the government is better placed to get the legislation through the upper House. Unlike the 2016 version of CAB, the latest draft leaves out of its purview tribal areas of Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram and Tripura covered under the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution as well as areas where Inner Line Permit is applicable. This ‘exclusion’ provision seeks to assu

Dawn.com Mubarak Jeb Khan ISLAMABAD: Inflation rose to 12.7 per cent year-on-year, the highest level in nine years mainly driven by an increase in prices of food items, the Pakistan Bureau of Statistics (PBS) reported on Wednesday. Inflation, measured by the Consumer Price Index (CPI), edged up by 1.3pc over the previous month after the PBS revised its calculation methodology by setting the new base year 2015-16 instead of the previous 2007-08 financial year. Finance ministry in a brief statement claimed that inflation would come down from the next month without saying how they figured this. The data released on Wednesday shows that higher prices of food items have been the largest driver in overall inflation in November. It has also been observed that the prices of essential food items are higher in rural areas than in urban areas. Food inflation in urban areas rose by 16.6pc in November on a yearly basis and 2.4pc on a monthly basis and that in rural areas by 19.3pc