Asian-Pacific nations would be discussing the perils of ageing during  July, 2007
Asian-Pacific nations would be discussing the perils of ageing during July, 2007

A United Nations-backed meeting on the social, health and economic consequences of population ageing would start in Bangkok, Thailand in July, 2007. The two-day seminar is being held by the UN Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (UNESCAP), in collaboration with the UN Population Fund (UNFPA) and the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA). Population ageing, due to declining fertility and increasing longevity, has increasingly come to pose a challenge to the Asia-Pacific region, with the number of older persons in the area to grow rapidly, surging from 410 million in 2007 to 733 million in 2025 to an expected 1.3 billion in 2050.

UN agency urge vigilance on food safety
UN agency urge vigilance on food safety

Two United Nations agencies, namely Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and the World Health Organization (WHO), have recently urged all countries to be vigilant when dealing with traders and producers that affect the supply line, given the weaknesses in food safety systems around the world.

Snapshot of India’s Development Deficits
Snapshot of India’s Development Deficits

As is well known, income or consumption poverty is often used as shorthand to capture economic wellbeing of people. However, there is almost a consensus view among social scientists by now that such a view of poverty is too narrow and it is absolutely necessary to go beyond hunger and malnutrition and include several other features in conceptualising poverty, such as deprivation (or poor access) in terms of clothing, shelter, basic social services including primary health care, sanitation, education, shelter etc., political powerlessness, socio-cultural marginalisation and exclusion, among others. By any reckoning, development deficits in India are huge in terms of attaining the MDGs (Millennium Development Goals).

Stem cells ‘allow paralysed man to breath again’
Stem cells ‘allow paralysed man to breath again’

An Australian man paralysed from the neck down in a sporting accident 14 years ago has claimed he can breathe again unaided for the first time after having stem cell treatment in India. Perry Cross is the highest profile patient so far to claim success for the treatment offered by a medical centre in south Delhi which, if true, would represent a remarkable breakthrough.

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