Full Coverage: South Asia

05/31/2006 Nepal's Ministry of Health and Population (MoHP) Child Health Division released a five-year action plan aimed at checking the incidence of anaemia among women and children.

05/31/2006 Every year, 15,000 Nepalis die due to tobacco consumption and smoking.

05/31/2006 India now has more people living with HIV than any other country, a UNAids report has revealed.The report shows that India now accounts for two-thirds of HIV cases in the whole of Asia.

05/31/2006 In spite of Government claims that "excellent treatment is now available; modern medicines have revolutionised the treatment of mental illness; schizophrenia is curable," and so on, it is estimated that there are at least 30 lakh schizophrenics in India who are neither cured nor are they able to lead a normal life, even with the support of the so-called excellent treatment which has now been made available to them.

05/31/2006 Bangladesh Women Chamber of Commerce and Industry (BWCCI) on May 23, 2006, demanded allocation of at least Tk 25 crore in the budget for 2006-07 for women entrepreneurship development. They also demanded tax holiday facility for up to 10 years for the women entrepreneurs.

05/31/2006 The world’s rural women can play a crucial role in efforts to restore drylands, according to a new study released by the International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) at a major UN conference on women and desertification being held in Beijing this week.

05/31/2006 India has finally imposed a ban on cattle drug diclofenac that had almost caused the extinction of vultures in the country in under two decades. While harmless to cattle, the drug causes fatal kidney and liver damage to vultures that feed on animal carcasses.

05/31/2006 Net private capital flows to developing countries reached a record high of $491 billion in 2005, driven by privatizations, mergers and acquisitions, external debt refinancing, as well as strong investor interest in local-currency bond markets in Asia and Latin America, says the World Bank’s annual 2006 Global Development Finance report.

05/31/2006 The Bhopal Memorial Hospital and Research Centre has done little for the long-term treatment of gas victims. Though built specifically to give free long-term treatment to gas victims, the hospital, which is the only super-specialty hospital in Bhopal, also caters to other patients who pay for their treatment. In the process, the gas victims are systematically discriminated against.

05/31/2006 Information and communication technology (ICT) is the best means to eliminate poverty. Microsoft Bangladesh Limited Country Manager Feroz Mahmud said this while speaking as the chief guest at the certificate distribution ceremony of the trainees of 'Partners in Learning.'

05/31/2006 According to a new report, China, India, and Brazil could cut their rapidly rising energy use and greenhouse gas emissions by more than 25 percent using existing energy efficient technologies.

05/30/2006 The Central Board of Secondary Education would introduce scholarships for girl students and a slew of reforms from the coming year to make the examination more stress-free and help students perform better.

05/30/2006 Nepal's Hindu majority is denouncing the recent move to end the country's long-time status as the world's only Hindu state, says Bikash Sangraula.

05/30/2006 The telecom dispute settlement appellate tribunal (TDSAT) has rejected VSNL’s petition against Trai and DoT and held that long distance calling cards sold by the company was illegal.

05/30/2006 After the Department of Telecom volleyed the issue of allocation and pricing of spectrum for 3G mobile services to its court, regulator TRAI is all set to release a paper next week to gauge stakeholders' views.

05/30/2006 If equity, justice, redressal are not built into our ICT strategies, all we will have accomplished is to upgrade our worlds, not change them. A person form Andhra spoke to Samuha members of how a person with a disability had accessed financial assistance through the government's ICT kiosks, and how, immediately after, a Panchayat official had come up to this person, and had asked him to ‘deposit' the funds with him.

05/30/2006 A "week of mourning" is being held by an Asian rights group in protest against a series of judicial appointments that it says contravene the constitution.

05/30/2006 The manner in which the court resolved the case of Neelam Ludhani has raised hopes that it could have a positive impact for the situation of women in Pakistan, irrespective of religion, aside from the signals it has sent out on the issue of conversions.

05/30/2006 The highly volatile Indian stock market may be giving sleepless nights to some, but more and more women investors, from grandmothers to college students and homemakers, are using it as an opportunity to enter the once exclusive male domain and take on the bulls and bears, reports PTI.

05/30/2006 The weaknesses in the education system and the concurrent challenges of poverty and fears mean that children are not performing well in school.