-PTI Monsoons 31% below average up to July 2 The deficient rainfall during last month has affected the sowing of coarse cereals but there is no cause for worry for the paddy crop, Agriculture Minister Sharad Pawar today said. The monsoon rains have been 31% below average up to July 2, Pawar told reporters here. He said the rainfall deficiency has affected sowing of coarse cereals, but SITuation in paddy is "not worrisome". Till June...

-The Economic Times CHANDIGARH: The monsoon eluding the north has now added a new worry - the sharply falling water level in the Bhakra dam, and the Pong dam, in Himachal Pradesh have led to a shortfall in power supply to the northern grid. The powerhouses of Bhakra are now supplying 10% less power to the northern grid, fuelling fears of severe power and water crisis in at least four states...

The Bill to regulate medical education and govern human resource in health is a highly diluted version of the original draft. Distortions in the area of Human Resource for Health (HRH) are the root cause of many of the ills facing the health sector in India. Among them is the shortage of qualified medical professionals. The estimated denSITy of 19 health workers (qualified and unqualified) per 10,000 population is nearly 25...

The government and the MCI dither on a proposed course to provide better primary health care in villages. On February 27, the Delhi High Court slapped contempt notices on the Union Health Secretary and the Chairperson of the Medical Council of India (MCI) for their non-compliance with its order of November 10, 2010, to initiate measures to introduce a “Bachelor of Rural Health Care (BRHC)” course of three and a half...

-The Hindu In the filled slots, SCs constitute just 12% against the stipulated 15% and STs 5% instead of 7.5% Among the ills that plague the Indian higher education system is the continued poor stake of the Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes in it. Year on year, the huge backlog of vacancies in teaching poSITions in SC/ST categories remains a constant concern with little change in its poSITion. Nearly half the teaching poSITions...