On the suggestions:
1. Threads related to poverty and whatnot:
Coincidentally, I raised this issue earlier with the other mods and admins (awaiting responses since no one is online). IMO social issues such as poverty, lack of sanitation, malnutrition, slums etc. should be dealt with holistically in single threads dedicated to each issue, for each country separately or together as 'South Asia'.
There is a thread in the E&D section on slums for example that started off with the usual flame based off an article that 'karachi was the largest slum in the world' or something like that, and of course next thing you know stats on Indian slums are being thrown about.
What the mods did is try and redirect that thread (change the title and delete posts etc.) into a discussion about slums in India and Pakistan in the context of what is wrong, what is being done, and what is in the pipeline, to change things.
Instead of trying to ridicule the other side on the basis of these socio-economic problems, it is far more constructive to have a discussion on what the governments, NGO's and civil society are doing to change things.
So I suggest setting up dedicated threads on each issue for each nation that points out the problem once (or every year, to understand long term trends) and then focus on discussions/posts on solutions and plans. There is no need to post individual cases of farmer suicides, lack of sanitation, slums etc. once the problem has been identified and stats shared once a year.