The World Bank has approved a $1.5 billion loan for the ambitious clean India campaign to support the government in its efforts to ensure all citizens in rural areas have access to improved sanitation and end the practice of open defecation by 2019. As per World Bank statistics, of the 2.4 billion people who lack access to improved sanitation globally, more than 750 million live in India, with 80 per cent living in rural areas. More than 500 million of the rural population in India continue to defecate in the open, suffering from preventable deaths, illness, stunting, harassment and economic losses.

The loan will be used for Swachh Bharat Mission (SBM) Support Operation Project. “One in every ten deaths in India is linked to poor sanitation. And studies show that low-income households bear the maximum brunt of poor sanitation,” said Onno Ruhl, World Bank Country Director for India. “This project, aimed at strengthening the implementation of the Swachh Bharat initiative of the government, will result in significant health benefits for the poor and vulnerable, especially those living in rural areas,” he said. “Incentivising good performance by states and the focus on behavioural changes are two important components of this project,” he said.

The Bank said the Ministry of Drinking Water and Sanitation (MDWS) will play the overseeing and coordinating role for the programme and support the participating states. Funds will also be used to develop the capacity of MDWS in program management, advocacy, monitoring and evaluation. “India has demonstrated extraordinary leadership in pursuing the ambitious SBM campaign and embracing the focus on behaviour to complement the construction of toilets,” said Annette Dixon, World Bank Vice President for the South Asia Region. The World Bank will also provide a parallel $25 million technical assistance to build the capacity of select state governments in implementing community-led behavioural change programmes targeting social norms to help ensure widespread usage of toilets by rural households.

The UN has kicked off the process to elect the next Secretary General, with the Security Council and General Assembly making an unprecedented call to member states to recommend woman candidates for the top job that has been held by a man for the past 70 years. In a first, UN Security Council President for December U.S. envoy Samantha Power and General Assembly President Mogens Lykketoft circulated a letter yesterday to the 193 UN members soliciting names of candidates for the next UN chief and vowing to make the process more transparent and inclusive.

The two also made a special emphasis on the need for member states to nominate women candidates for the job of the world’s top diplomat. No woman has served as Secretary General in the 70 years that the UN has been in existence. “Convinced of the need to guarantee equal opportunities for women and men in gaining access to senior decision-making positions, Member States are encouraged to consider presenting women, as well as men, as candidates for the position of Secretary-General,” the letter said. Lykketoft said that so far two candidates had been put forward for selection — Croatia’s woman Foreign Minister Vesna Pusic and former UN General Assembly President Srgjan Kerim of Macedonia.

Secretary General Ban Ki-moon has served two five-year terms and his tenure as UN Chief will end next year. He has been a strong proponent of electing a woman as his successor and has said at several public venues that “it’s high time for a Secretary-General to be a woman”. India has also called for changing and improving the existing process of selecting the world body’s chief, with its UN envoy Ambassador Asoke Mukerji saying that gender equality and regional rotation should be given due regard. The next Secretary-General will assume the role in January 2017 and will serve a five year term, which can be renewed by Member States for an additional five years.

According to the UN Charter, the Secretary-General is appointed by the General Assembly following the recommendation of the Security Council. Until now the selection of the Secretary General was made behind closed doors by the Security Council with the five veto-wielding permanent members having the last word. However as the time to elect Ban’s successor nears, there is a growing demand from member states not only to make the process more transparent and inclusive but also to have a woman leader assume the role. In another unprecedented move, Power and Lykketoft said potential candidates will be given the opportunity to interact with members of the Security Council and General Assembly.

“The President of the General Assembly and the President of the Security Council will offer candidates opportunities for informal dialogues or meetings with the members oft heir respective bodies, while noting that any such interaction will be without prejudice to those who do not participate. “These can take place before the Council begins its selection by the end of July 2016 and may continue throughout the process of selection,” they said in the letter. The letter added that the position of Secretary-General is one of great importance that requires the highest standards of efficiency, competence and integrity, and a firm commitment to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. “We invite candidates to be presented with proven leadership and managerial abilities, extensive experience in international relations, and strong diplomatic, communication and multilingual skills,” it said.

Thailand’s junta is stepping up its offensive against critics, with a military court on Tuesday sentencing a single mother to seven years in jail for posting material on the Internet said to be insulting to the monarchy, just a day after another person was accused of disparaging the king’s dog. Thanakorn Siripaiboon was charged with lese majeste, or insulting the monarchy, for posting an apparently inappropriate photo of royal dog Tongdaeng and for clicking ‘Like’ on a Facebook page with a derogatory photo of King Bhumibol Adulyadej. Lese majeste in punishable by three to 15 years in prison per incident. The stray dog was adopted by the king in 1998, and soon became his close companion. The king wrote a book in 2002 about Tongdaeng that served as a parable for the behavior he wanted his countrymen to show, a point he also made in one of his annual birthday speeches.

The military, which declared after seizing power last year that safeguarding the monarchy was one of its priorities, has stepped up the pace of lese majeste prosecutions. The targets have generally been people sympathetic with the “Red Shirt” movement which supported the ousted civilian government and opposed the coup. Thanakorn, arrested last Wednesday, is also charged with sedition for sharing an infographic purporting to show the web of alleged corruption around a park constructed by the army to honor past Thai kings. Allegations of financial wrongdoing by army officials have tainted the reputation of the military government, which claims to be seeking to purge Thai politics of corruption. The woman sentenced to seven years in jail, identified by her lawyer as Chayapha C., was arrested in June for a Facebook posting allegedly opposing the military government.

Because she pleaded guilty to the charge, her original 14—year sentence was halved, said Sasinan Thamnithinan of the group Thai Lawyers for Human Rights. Rights groups and Thai media reported that another man, Thanet Anantawong, was arrested Sunday at a hospital in connection with the same infographic alleging army corruption. Thanet “was admitted to the hospital with an intestinal infection Friday and was about to be operated upon for a hernia when he was taken away,” the website of the Khaosod newspaper reported. He is being held on charges of lese majeste, sedition and violating the Computer Crime Act. Khasosod reported on the royal dog’s photo on Monday, but by evening removed the story from its website, saying the newspaper’s management “feared that content in the article might lead to possible legal action.”

Self—censorship has become increasingly prevalent in the Thai media since the military took power. The printer of the Thai edition of the International New York Times removed an article Tuesday about the royal dog, the third time in a month that it has deleted stories about Thailand. King Bhumibol, who turned 88 earlier this month and is ailing, made a rare, brief appearance on television on Monday. He has been hospitalized for most of the past six years, and his last appearance before the general public was on Sept. 1