-IANS Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda on Thursday said there was a need to set up a special task force comprising both government and private healthcare sectors to ensure quality healthcare for every citizen of India. "Our vision is to provide universal healthcare coverage despite several challenges in the health sector. It can better be done by a special task force comprising the ministry and representatives of private healthcare sector," Nadda said. He...

-The Indian Express The time has come for the NHRC and State Human Rights Commissions to proactively recognise, promote and protect HRDs and create an enabling environment for defending human rights. On 28 May 2011, in Raigarh district of Chhattisgarh, two activists, Ramesh Agrawal and Harihar Patel, were arrested by the state police. Another activist, Rajesh Tripathi, went underground fearing imminent arrest. The trio, along with others, through their organisations—Jan Chetna...

-Press Release from India Resource Center New Delhi: A proposal to tax sugar sweetened beverages like tobacco in India is being welcomed by public health advocates. The proposal to increase sin taxes on aerated drinks is part of the recommendations made by India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the parliament of India. Taxation to reduce consumption of tobacco has been successful when used...

-The Hindu The Aam Aadmi Party government in Delhi has announced a slew of measures to address the very poor air quality and pollution in the nation’s capital. It is, in principle, a largely welcome move that could push the needle for anti-pollution measures to be adopted by other Indian cities as well. These are possibly the most significant steps taken after the introduction of Compressed Natural Gas-powered vehicles in the...

-The Hindu Business Line A CAG audit shows that the Centre and State governments have been criminally remiss over disaster management The unprecedented and continuing rains that have broken a 100-year record and have wreaked havoc in Chennai for over a week, highlight both elaborate rescue and relief efforts as well as gaps in the existing policy on disaster planning. It is true that swift deployment of the armed forces to evacuate...