-The Hindu Business Line The letter issued by the Centre carrying the PMJAY scheme details has helped to a great extent Ahead of her visit to Billroth private hospital in Chennai for coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG), Girija had no clue to the Chief Minister’s Comprehensive Health Insurance Scheme (CMCHIS), which had been running in the State for more than seven years. The treatment that carries a package cost of Rs. 92,500 was...

-The Hindu Business Line Sociologist Dipankar Gupta discusses the dynamics of political mobilisation and the politics of reservation. Excerpts from an interview to Poornima Joshi: * The Indian state’s failure to provide the basics — universal education and healthcare — has never become the rallying point for political mobilisation. Why is that? The more cleavages of class, caste, language, race a society has, the more difficult it is to practise democracy. Democracy works...

-VillageSquare.in Women trained as poshan sakhis, or nutrition friends, advice and help rural women, particularly expectant and lactating mothers, to eat nutritious food and overcome anemia and underweight deliveries Koraput (Odisha): Swapnarani (21), an expectant mother, finishes her household work fast to attend the monthly maitri baithak at her village Bhutanagar in Badakeranga panchayat of Odisha’s Koraput district. Maitri baithak, or friendship meeting, provides space for women to discuss issues that concern...

-Financial Express From camelccino to camel milk chocolate, there’s no dearth of delicacies on offer. Camel milk is in the news. And hailing its virtue is none other than Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Addressing a gathering of farmers in Anand, Gujarat, in October, Modi narrated how he was ridiculed for describing camel milk as nutritious once. It was during his stint as chief minister of Gujarat that he had tried promoting camel...

-The Telegraph However, it is true that administrative agencies cannot act without a nod from their political masters It is, as always, a question of will. The highest court of the land has demonstrated its will over and over again, coming to the aid of India’s citizens by delivering them from a clutch of threats. Its recent ruling banning noisy, toxic firecrackers can be cited as one example of a deliverance that...