-Live Mint Developments a part of reforms initiated after apex court’s intervention to amend Drugs and Cosmetics Act The health ministry has tightened the norms for clinical trials by making it mandatory for companies to compensate patients who may suffer injury or death while participating in the trials even if they have not been caused by the drugs being tested.   So far, the compensation has been restricted only to cases where the...

-Outlook Lamenting that standard of teachers in not up to the mark and learning outcomes are below expectations, Prime Minister Manmohan Singh today said "major concerns" in the field of education need to be addressed. Singh also noted that "drop-out rates in schools remain high after the elementary level. Some major concerns relating to equity also remain to be addressed." The Prime Minister's comments come a day after he regretted that none of...

-PTI Washington: Early breast cancer diagnosis and survival rates are very low among women living in rural India compared to those in developed nations, a new study has claimed. Researchers said women in Developed Countries survive roughly 10 years longer after a breast cancer diagnosis compared to women in poor-to-middle-income countries. The study by University of Michigan demonstrates the lack of access to good health care faced by women in poor countries, said...

-The United Nations The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) today called on countries to boost efforts to promote agroforestry, a practice involving the combination of trees with crop or livestock production, stressing it can help millions of people escape poverty and prevent environmental degradation, making it crucial to ensure food security in the future. “In many countries the potential of agroforestry to enrich farmers, communities and industry has not been...

-The Hindu One of the most prominent features of India’s middle-class-driven public culture has been an obsession about our GDP growth rate, and a facile equation of that number with a sense of national achievement or impending arrival into affluence. In media headlines, political speeches, and everyday conversations, the GDP growth rate number — whether it is five per cent or eight per cent or whatever — has become a staple...