-The Hindu     Aim is to help urban poor go to health facilities after working hours To help urban poor go to health facilities after working hours, urban primary health centres, planned under the National Urban Health Mission (NUHM), will function from noon to 8 p.m. Out-patient departments at standard health facilities worked only in the morning; when patients had to go to work, visiting a doctor or hospital would mean losing a...

-The Hindu Chennai: India's economic boom in the first decade of the 21st Century coincided with an increase in the magnitude of poverty, economist Prabhat Patnaik said here on Saturday. "There has been a period of positive growth as far as the GDP is concerned. But during this period , there has been an increase in magnitude of absolute poverty," he said. "While the Planning Commission insists that proportion of population below...

-Tehelka While district administration of Varanasi says that the children died of tuberculosis, human rights' activists allege that the deaths were due to hunger and malnutrition  Two children from a poor family of weavers have allegedly died of starvation in Varanasi. Four-year old Mohammed Murtaza died on 9 May, while his sister Shamim Parveen (14) died the next day in the Bajardiha locality of Varanasi. Their father, Abdul Khaliq died 10...

-The Economic Times The revised, but not yet passed, National Food Security Bill (NFSB) represents a crucial political-economic approach to welfare. But how well do we understand the financial and, more importantly, distributional consequences of the revised Bill? Although the revised Bill is likely to simplify the identification of beneficiaries, financial implications will still be substantial. Calculating these implications must include not only the cost of food subsidy, but also additional costs...

-The Hindu The south leads in the number of medical and nursing seats, with for-profit private colleges dominating the scene. It will take major capacity expansion in the government sector to meet WHO norms on access to health professionals. India has achieved major organisational and technological successes but the health system's performance is abysmal. This cannot be attributed to poverty. It is poor health that places India 134th in the Human Development...