Food systems have the potential to nurture human health and support environmental sustainability, however our current trajectories threaten both. The EAT–Lancet Commission addresses the need to feed a growing global population a healthy diet while also defining sustainable food systems that will minimise damage to our planet.

The quest to secure economic growth, after a financial crisis that raised serious questions about capitalism's ability to protect and sustain the wellbeing of populations in rich and poor countries alike, is the overriding political priority for many governments today.

Publication of the Global Burden of Disease Study 2010 (GBD 2010) is a landmark event and we hope, for health. The collaboration of 486 scientists from 302 institutions in 50 countries has produced an important contribution to our understanding of present and future health priorities for countries and the global community. What is the GBD 2010? Launched in 2007, it is a consortium of seven partners: Harvard University; the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME) at the University of Washington, Seattle; Johns Hopkins University; the University of Queensland; Imperial

India rightly brands itself incredible. The country's remarkable political, economic, and cultural transformation over the past half century has made it a geopolitical force almost equal to that of China. The west has welcomed the growth of India: witness US President Barack Obama's recent support for Indian membership of the UN Security Council.

The apparent failure to reduce maternal mortality during 20 years of the Safe Motherhood movement has been one of the most deforming scars on the body of global health. Despite strong advocacy efforts, political leaders have either ignored the call or failed to make the health of women in pregnancy their priority.