India changes its four-decade-old definition of blindness
According to the new definition of blindness adopted by India, a person unable to count fingers from three metres would be considered 'blind' as against the earlier stipulation of six metres, used since 1976. The step, in line with WHO blindness criteria, is expected to decrease the number of people considered 'blind' from 1.20 crore (2007 survey) to 80 lakh.