-DNA   In an attempt to curb high infant and maternal mortality rate in India, the government has decided to launch scheme from June 1 to provide free healthcare to mothers and children. The Central government has asked the states to ensure free and cashless services to all pregnant women in government hospitals as well as to SICk neonates. This includes free drugs, free consumables and diagnostics, free diet during stay and free...

In a bid to improve the maternal and infant mortality in the country, the Union Ministry of Health and Family Welfare has decided to provide free nutritious food, treatment, and transportation to all pregnant women who go to government facilities for delivery. Free healthcare services will also be provided to the newborns, as and when required. To be launched on June 1 from Mewat, Haryana, the scheme will be applicable for...

Riding on the determination of United Progressive Alliance (UPA) chairperson Sonia Gandhi, the draft law that will make access to food a constitutional right will be ready within 15 days, a minister said on Monday, even as police detained some members of the National Advisory Council (NAC). “We are in the process of finalizing the draft Bill,” said minister of state for food K.V. Thomas. “I have discussed it (the Right...

The passport office in Hyderabad reported the highest number of passport applications recorded in Indian history (at least 450,000) and it expects an increase of 15-20% this year Jamuna Kunta sits stiffly in a plush red chair at the Hyderabad press club, holding her head proudly erect as she quietly recounts the events leading to her husband’s suicide in Dubai. A farmer from Karimnagar, a rural district in Andhra Pradesh, her husband...

India’s Supreme Court dismissed a petition on Wednesday to reconsider a decision to reduce the charges against seven men convicted for their roles in the 1984 leak at the Union Carbide chemical plant in Bhopal. The ruling was a setback to the victims of the gas leak who sought tougher penalties against the executives serving at the time of the accident, which killed 3,000 people and SICkened thousands more. India’s...