Health: 309,000 Newborn Babies Died every year in India

In this photograph taken on November 6, 2013, premature babies are closely monitored while being fed oxygen at the post natal Intensive Care Unit (ICU) at a local hospital in Shivpuri, in central Madhya Pradesh. India has long had a dismal record of deaths from preventable illness; the nation accounts for 29 percent of global first-day deaths for example - or 309,000 newborn deaths a year, says nonprofit group Save the Children. But figures from the census office published in October suggests that after 15 years of booming economic growth and explosive modernisation, India may finally be turning the corner.

An Indian nurse (R) holds a new born baby girl as she explains the importance of breast feeding to her mother (L) and the woman's mother at the local hospital.