India’s largest association of doctors and the country’s apex regulator of medical education appear poised for confrontation over a government proposal to create a new cadre of healthcare providers for rural areas. The Union health ministry has announced a plan to create a group of health practitioners who could diagnose and treat common illnesses and injuries and prescribe medicines to patients in rural areas plagued by shortages of doctors. The health ministry...

Government seems disrespectful in treating October meeting as a non-event: Shailesh Gandhi  At meeting, majority of 60-odd Commissioners vetoed amendments proposed by DoPT Meeting concluded on understanding that DoPT would forward minutes to the Commissioners The minutes of the stormy October 14, 2009 meeting between Central and State Information Commissioners and the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT) on the controversial issue of amendments to the Right To Information Act, 2005 are...

Maoist-hit Koraput region will soon find a place on the international map, but for a different reason. The region is going to be recognised by the Food and Agriculture Organisation as a “globally important agriculture heritage system” on the pattern of world heritage sites declared by the Unesco, said eminent agro scientist M.S. Swaminathan here today. Considering the extraordinary biological and agricultural diversity of the Koraput region, which needs to be protected...

‘We must analyse whether risks are more or benefits are more’  The government should not be in hurry to introduce Bt brinjal until fundamental issues were addressed, agriculture scientist M.S. Swaminathan said here on Saturday. Speaking to journalists on the sidelines of a consultation on “Effective community management of biodiversity in an era of climate change,” Dr. Swaminathan said: “Every technology has its benefits and risks. But it all depends...

Are the world and human society in general ready and willing to take action on critical issues that require a major change in the manner in which we produce and consume goods and services?  The science of climate change is now well established. This is the result of painstaking work of over two decades carried out by thousands of scientists drawn from across the globe to assess every aspect of...