-TheWire.in The government has fixed the insurance reimbursements for 1,354 medical procedures under its massive new scheme. They say they won’t revise this any further. New Delhi: Despite protests from the private health sector, that the government’s reimbursements to them under the massive new health insurance scheme are too low, the government has “frozen” these rates and is unlikely to change them. “The package rates are now frozen,” said health secretary Preeti Sudan. Dinesh...

-The Hindu Research shows that they alter rivers and their fish communities drastically It seems to stand to reason that small dams cause less environmental problems than large ones. But the first study on small hydropower projects in India proves that they cause as severe ecological impacts as big dams, including altering fish communities and changing river flows. Such hydroprojects, which usually generate less than 25 megawatts of power and consist of a...

-The Hindu The court-ordered clean-up in the textile town has managed to mitigate ill-effects of industrial pollution to a large extent. A similar remediation effort, involving the government and stakeholders, is needed in other parts of Tamil Nadu, where groundwater has been so contaminated that farming is not possible anymore On a sunny June morning, two men are spotted fishing close to the Orathupalayam dam in Erode district. A rather ordinary act in...

-The Indian Express Area under ‘unapproved’ herbicide-tolerant hybrids likely to fall this year Nagpur: Last year, almost 35 lakh packets of genetically modified (GM) cotton seeds, incorporating unapproved ‘herbicide-tolerance’ or HT technology, were bought and planted by farmers across India. But this time round, state governments seem better prepared to curb this illegal cultivation, even as sowing of cotton is over in northwest India and is about to commence in the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Some major private hospitals like Fortis, Apollo, Medanta and Narayana Health have expressed concern over the government’s ambitious ‘Ayushman Bharat’ fixing prices of some critical procedures, saying the rates are not viable for them. Senior executives from some private hospitals met officials of Niti Aayog and health ministry on Friday over this issue following representations by various industry forums, sources said. “It appears that, overall, no...