Speciasl Report: Inside The Surreal Battle For Mind Control Playing Out In Rajasthan's Classrooms

From history to politics to math, text books are throwing caution to the wind, as teachers grow divided.

For someone who is courageously speaking truth to power, 51-year-old Mahavir Sihag is exceedingly soft spoken. On occasion, you have to remind him to speak louder, so that you can hear.

Are Expiration Dates On Medicines Just A Myth?

If some drugs remain effective well beyond the date on their labels, why hasn’t there been a push to extend their expiration dates?

The box of prescription drugs had been forgotten in a back closet of a retail pharmacy for so long that some of the pills predated the 1969 moon landing. Most were 30 to 40 years past their expiration dates – possibly toxic, probably worthless.

Why It’s Unfair To Ban Commercial Surrogacy?

Altruistic surrogacy alone will deprive many would-be parents of options. Earlier last month, a couple in our family successfully got custody of their newborn through surrogacy. Filled with emotional highs and lows, the past nine months left the parents-to-be disillusioned about the prevailing surrogacy practices. 

Following a successful embryo transfer, the surrogate, after receiving a hefty advance payment, went underground despite the formal facilitation of the process by a reputed gynaecologist. She appeared only a month after delivery to hand over the parents' prized possession. The blessed parents swiftly forgot their misery as soon as all the paperwork was completed and they received their little bundle of joy in their hands. After all, their dream of having their biological child had finally come true.

Genetic Isolation in Casteist India Could Could Render Some People More Vulnerable to Disease

There is reduced genetic variation among the people of some subpopulations because they have been genetically isolated due to various factors – such as caste.

The occurrence of genetic diseases in certain subpopulations in India and other countries in South Asia is well known. Indian scientists now suspect that this could be due to genetic isolation caused by endogamous marriages over generations.

'The Future Of Family Planning Now Goes Digital'

One of India’s most vocal advocates for youth rights to sexual health, Franklin Paul, has been introducing digital technologies to the rural youth.

Online shopping may have its pros and cons, but when it comes to buying products that have an invisible morality tag, it’s the safest possible option, believes Franklin Paul.

One of India’s most vocal advocates for youth rights to sexual health, education and products, Paul has spent over two years studying and introducing digital technologies to India’s rural youths.

‘Trumpcare’ Is Dangerous to the American Healthcare System

Congressional efforts to do away with Obamacare threatens leaving millions of Americans without any health insurance.

The American healthcare system is in danger. The Senate’s new Bill, the Better Care Reconciliation Act (BCRA), released in June, is an effort by the Republican Party to “repeal and replace” the Affordable Care Act (ACA), or ‘Obamacare,’ put forward by the Barack Obama administration.

Doctors find 150 PINS lodged in Indian man's body, including his artery and wind pipe - but the man says he has no idea how they got there!

Badrilal Meena has so far had 91 pins removed from his body by doctors in India - including from his wind pipe and esophagus (pictured). He's had to undergo three different surgeries.

A man has baffled doctors after being found with dozens of pins lodged throughout his body - and no idea how they got there.

Badrilal Meena has had to visit six hospitals and undergone three surgeries to extract the shards which had become lodged in his arms, feet and neck.

Inside Chandrababu Naidu’s plan to make Andhra Pradesh a sunrise state

Nara Chandrababu Naidu’s ‘Sunrise Andhra Pradesh-Vision 2029’ aims to make the state India’s most developed, overcoming the legacy issues that came with the creation of Telangana.

In the calendar of the state administration of Andhra Pradesh, the second day of the week is not a Monday. Instead, it is designated Polavaram day—after the ambitious multi-purpose irrigation project that entails interlinking the unruly waters of the Godavari and the Krishna to bridge the water deficit in the latter’s river basin.

Bloody 'Period' Pain: Mensuration Pain Can Be “Almost As Bad As Heart Attack,” Why Aren’t We Researching How To Treat It?

It’s time to talk about period pain. Every month, every woman you know who’s pre-menopause and post-puberty bleeds from their vagina. Periods are one of the most basic facts of life. Any squeamishness around the subject is both ridiculous and harmful, because too many women are suffering in silence, grimacing through the agony they experience with their periods.

How Two Common Medications Were Combined Into One $455-Million Specialty Pill?

Vimovo costs way more than the two individual medicines. So how have its manufacturers managed to make it sell?

Everything happened so fast as I walked out of the doctor’s exam room. I was tucking in my shirt and wondering if I’d asked all my questions about my injured shoulder when one of the doctor’s assistants handed me two small boxes of pills.

Mother of all land scams has blown in the face of KCR government in Telangana

The illegal deal is reported to have caused a loss of Rs 587 crore to the state exchequer.

Just a week after K Chandrasekhar Rao claimed no government land in Telangana had passed on to private hands, the chief minister is on the back foot. It has now come to light that Telangana Rashtra Samiti senior leader and Rajya Sabha MP Kesava Rao's family purchased 50 acres of land in Hafeezpur village in Ibrahimpatnam mandal near Hyderabad.

The Harsh Reasons These Housewives In Bangalore Chose To Become Sex Workers

Editor’s note: For decades, sex workers in India have been pushed to the margins, forced to deal with shame and stigma from society. ‘Unheard Stories’ is a series of stories by INNLIVE that aims to bring these narratives to the fore, to build a more inclusive and accepting society.

“I am illiterate and unskilled. I need money to run my household. Now, this (sex work) is my job and I am proud of it as I have sacrificed a lot for my family,” says Jaya Prabha (name changed) with a stoic face. For her, sex work is a lesser evil than watching her children starve.

Ransomware Attacks Can Seriously Cripple Systems Like Aadhaar

WannaCry, the cyber attack that recently crippled Britain's National Health Service, and jammed hundred and thousands of computers in Spain, Russia, Ukraine, Taiwan and several other countries, should be a wake-up call for all of us—individuals, organisations and governments—who tend to take cyber security lightly.

What's WannaCry all about? It's what's known as ransomware—a particularly nasty type of malware that blocks access to a computer or its data and demands money to release it. The malicious software is planted on the network and temporarily stalls users from accessing their systems till a specified amount of "ransom" is paid electronically. Usually, the ransom demand is in the form of crypto currencies such as Bitcoin whose transaction trail is virtually untraceable. Once the ransom is paid, the files and data are decrypted by the hacker. In most cases, the lockdown is done through Trojans which are planted into the network system as simple phishing or spam emails.

India’s Diabetes Epidemic Is Making A Worrying Demographic Shift

More than 10% of urban Indians have diabetes, at least half of Indians who have it don't know it, and the prevalence of the disease is increasingly shifting to poorer people, the largest nationally study of the disease in India has found.

The Indian Council of Medical Research-India Diabetes (ICMR-INDIAB) study is the largest nationally representative study of diabetes in India and includes data from 57,000 people across 15 states; glucose tolerance tests were performed on participants to diagnose diabetes and pre-diabetes. The study was published in the medical journal Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology late on Wednesday night.

This Ramzan, Muslims In UP Will Break Their Roza With A Glass Of Cow's Milk From RSS

The RSS's Muslim wing will organise iftars on Fridays in Uttar Pradesh this Ramzan and serve only cow milk and its products to drive home the message of 'save the cow' and that consumption of its meat invites diseases.

Mahiraj Dhwaj Singh, national co-convenor (organisation) of Muslim Rashtriya Manch (MRM) for Uttar Pradesh and Uttarakhand, said it is for the "first time" that people who observe roza (fast), will be ending it with a glass of cow's milk.

Will universal maternity entitlements in India remain a pipe dream?

Existing minimal entitlements to women are now being undermined further through the half-hearted Maternity Benefit Programme.

Maternity entitlements have been in the news several times over the last year. In August 2016, the Maternity Benefit Act was amended to extend the period of paid maternity leave from 12 weeks to 26 weeks. Later, in his New Year’s eve address, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced the expansion of a maternity benefit scheme to all districts. Last week, the Cabinet approved a Maternity Benefit Programme that does cover all districts across the country but dilutes the entitlements to each beneficiary and imposes conditions that will exclude many women.

Where Are India's Heat Hotspots?

Heat waves across the world have killed tens of thousands of people since the turn of the century. In the U.S., more people die from deaths related to heat than all other natural phenomena combined. Parts of West Asia are expected to become inhospitable to human life by the end of this century. 

And in recent years, India and neighboring regions have experienced several devastating heat waves, causing the country to increasingly focus on a growing global concern—rising temperatures as a public health threat.

By 2022 India’s population is projected to exceed China’s, making it home to one-fifth of the world’s population. As a developing country located in the tropics, India suffers from factors that make it vulnerable to heat waves: persistent poverty, poor sanitation, a precarious water and electricity supply and low rate of access to health care.

Will Superstar Rajinikanth finally enter politics?

His failure to live up to the expectations he often builds up has made such speculation a sort of amusement.

“Naa eppo varuven eppadi varuven nu yarukum theriyathu
aana varavendiya tithula correct ah varuven”
(No one knows when and how I will enter. But I will enter at the right time)

This was Rajinikanth’s legendary punchline in the 1995 blockbuster Muthu.

Fitness and fasting: Making exercise during Ramadan work for you

It’s a dilemma faced by many Muslims every year. INNLIVE breaks down how you can both fast and exercise.

Going to the gym on an empty stomach, without any water and slightly sleep-deprived during the long summer days of July may seem a little loony. Yet all across the world, many Muslims choose to do this. On the first day of Ramadan, my friend and I went to the gym, naively thinking we’d be the only Muslims there. How wrong we were.

Human Interest Story: Six Best Global Festivals That Will Blow Your Mind

There’s something about festivals, be it a giant, joyous party or a respectful honouring of tradition; a seemingly bizarre adherence to ritual or a celebration of a quirky obsession – it’s a uniquely human thing to be involved in.

We like to get together to dance, sing, eat, laugh, drink, dress up, light fires, take our clothes off, throw tomatoes at each other, roll around in mud – just about anything really, but we seem to like doing it in really large groups with bags of enthusiasm. This selection from 50 Festivals to Blow Your Mind should give party-loving travellers plenty of ideas for their next trip.