The goal of universal health care requires an overhaul of the public health system, medical education and regulatory mechanisms. At long last, public health is on the agenda of the country’s policy makers. The Prime Minister’s Republic Day speech mentioned that the Twelfth Plan would focus on health just as the Eleventh Plan had focussed on education. But the manner in which the education sector has been messed with does not...

-The Hindu The six-member panel constituted to review the cartoons used in social sciences textbooks of the National Council for Educational Research and Training (NCERT) has ordered the deletion of several cartoons and words that it says are either “ambiguous”, negative or show politicians and bureaucrats in an ‘incorrect way. Among the material that gets the chop: an R.K. Laxman cartoon from the 1950s showing Nehru telling France and Portugal (represented as monkeys,...

A close reading of the Political Science textbook shows that it is complex, moves beyond pat answers, and treats the Constitution as a living document. It was produced in the light of the National Curriculum Framework 2005, which in itself was a major attempt to democratise education, and reverse the National Curriculum Framework 2000 which was casteist and sexist. Kumkum Roy (kumkumr@yahoo.com) is with the Centre for Historical Studies, Jawaharlal Nehru...

For the first time, the Centre has urged the governor to use his special powers in Scheduled Areas to cancel bauxite mining leases given in Andhra Pradesh's Vishakhapatnam district. Linking the issue of bauxite mining to the growing Maoist violence on the Andhra-Odisha border, the Centre has asked Andhra Pradesh governor ESL Narsimhan to use special powers, bestowed to Governors in Scheduled Areas under the Constitution, to cancel the leases. The Centre...

For three days in the last week of March, the United States Supreme Court heard arguments on the Affordable Care Act. No Federal law in the U.S. in recent memory has aroused such bitter controversy. If it is struck down as unconstitutional, President Barack Obama's prestige will suffer. He is due for re-election in November. Very many think the court will rule against him in June. The core of the law...