This article stresses that any impact assessment of health insurance schemes is sensitive to the methodology as well as the data used for analysis. It is based on two recent studies evaluating the impact of publicly-fi nanced health insurance schemes on benefi ciaries.

Ecosystem is affected by uneducated, unplanned and ineffective waste management. The cycle of garbage generation and recycling is effective to make the cities environment more pollution free, clean, green and habitable for healthy living. In an effort to understand the dynamics of waste management and scope in Delhi & NCR the

Recent reform programmes for achieving "slum-free" cities, like the Basic Services for the Urban Poor, signal a new integrated approach to slum redevelopment that combines housing, infrastructure and land titling. The new policy paradigm speaks the language of inclusiveness and efficiency, but its outcome has been far from ideal.

South Asia is the region most vulnerable to increasing food inflation given that a large part of its population lives below or near the poverty line. An empirical analysis of the factors that could explain the increase in food inflation is presented in this paper, while the effect of food price inflation on poverty and macroeconomic stability in south Asia is considered. Along with proposing some practical policies to address the situation, regional cooperation is identified as a factor that has the potential to provide an effective solution.

Batches of the world’s first vaccine against the hepatitis E virus began rolling out of a Chinese factory, promising to stem a disease that every year infects about 20 million people and claims 70,000 lives. The vaccine is being hailed as a victory for an unusual public–private partnership that could set a precedent in China’s burgeoning biotechnology sector, and help to deliver other vaccines for diseases overlooked in the West.