The controversial three-and-a-half year long medical degree -Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS) -- has now got the backing of Planning Commission's all powerful high level expert group on universal health coverage. The panel has in its report (finalized on Sunday and available with TOI) "endorsed" the all new BRMS cadre and said that as a career progression incentive, they should be promoted to the level of public health officers...

-The Times of India   Bihar is facing an acute shortage of doctors. Against a requirement of 15,000 doctors under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), only 4,500 doctors are in position. The problem has been compounded as against the retirement, deaths and migration to other places of 4,500 doctors of Bihar Health Services in the last 20 years, less than 1,000 doctors have been recruited during this period. The state government...

That wealthy western nations have "over-polluted" the atmosphere may come as little surprise. But the degree to which they have done so is staggering. Thanks to the enormous amount of carbon dioxide that countries such as the US and European Union have emitted over the last century, developing countries such as India and China will never be able to emit even a fraction of carbon dioxide they are entitled to in...

Stories abound in Bhopal of the life and death of Shehla Masood. But among those who knew her, there appears agreement on one point: something was so uncharacteristically passive, so un-Shehla-like, they say, about the dead body slumped in the driving seat of the silver-grey Santro on the morning of August 16, with no evident signs of struggle and a bullet hole in the neck. Some crude clues to the extraordinary...

-The Hindu   Planning Commission allocation will see significant rise The K. Srinath Reddy Committee of Experts, appointed by the Prime Minister to suggest universal health insurance coverage, is expected to submit its report by month-end, Planning Commission Deputy Chairman Montek Singh Ahluwalia said on Friday. At the same time, the Commission would ensure that allocation for the health sector was significantly increased in the 12th Plan, he said. During the 11th Plan, the...