To date, over 19,000 poor patients have benefited from tertiary-level hospital services

The Centre, Karnataka and the World Bank today signed a $70 million additional credit agreement for the ongoing Karnataka Health System Development and Reform Project to further support improvements in health service delivery, particularly for the underserved areas and vulnerable groups. The project builds on the experience of the original $141.83 million project. Since 2006, the project has contributed to development of the state’s health system, including improving administrative capacity and planning, investing in maternal health services, contracting NGOs to run mobile health clinics, supporting community-level public health interventions and contributing to a state government scheme that purchases hospital services for poor beneficiaries from accredited public and private hospitals.

THE World Bank has warned the planet is on track to warm by 4 degrees this century, leading to more extreme heat waves, lower crop yields and increased flooding, possibly as early as 2060.

- All nations will suffer the effects of a warmer world, but it is the world's poorest countries that will be hit hardest by food shortages, rising sea levels, cyclones and drought, the World Bank

WB report states how climate change to hit Bangladesh; warns poorest countries to be worst sufferers

Says 10.7% of S Asia’s agricultural land will be exposed to inundation

Since the 2009 UNFCCC conference, the global climate talks have accepted the scientific view that the increase in global temperature should be kept within a 2°C radius of pre-industrial times, towards which “deep cuts in global emissions are required”. But so far from deep have these cuts been that a new World Bank report, 'Turn Down the Heat', warns that even if current mitigation commitments and pledges are fully implemented, there is a roughly 20% likelihood of the world warming by more than 4°C by 2100, with a 10% chance of 4°C being exceeded as early as the 2060s.

The Supreme Court on Monday gave the go-ahead for felling of 4,313 trees on the 76-km Taj Trapezium Zone stretch in Uttar Pradesh for the Dedicated Freight Corridor project by the railways, funded by the World Bank.

A bench of Justices D.K. Jain and Madan B. Lokur allowed the plea of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India (DFCCI) after deliberations over the Forest Department’s definition of trees, as the bench had earlier sought clarification on whether saplings and trunks measuring four to five inches in diameter can be called trees.

The DoNER ministry has sanctioned Rs 77 crore for two roads – Rs 60 crore for the Bhabanipur-Manas National Park road and Rs 17 crore for the Saibari-Itakhola-Seijosa road

GUWAHATI: On Monday, the Assam Government signed a loan agreement with the World Bank and the Government of India for 320 million US dollars for the Assam State Road Project. But the good news does not end there. On Tuesday, the Ministry of Development of North Eastern Region (DoNER) sanctioned Rs 77 crore for development of roads in Assam. Meanwhile, the State Public Works Department (PWD) is also making an estimate for 5,000-km concrete road in rural areas under the Pradhan Mantri Gram Sadak Yojana (PMGSY).

World Bank on Monday signed an agreement with the central and Assam governments to provide $320 million, around Rs 1,760 crore, for improving secondary road network in the north-eastern state.