A review found less than 4 per cent beds were occupied by EWS patients at these hospitals; eight facilities rated ‘excellent’ A performance review of the city’s private hospitals has rated 25 facilities as ‘poor’ on compliance of the order for reserving 10 per cent of the total bed strength for patients from economically weaker sections (EWS). The Health department is now in the process of issuing notices to these hospitals. The...

As the local people determinedly continue to resist the commissioning of the Kudankulam reactors, the statements of the nuclear establishment have acquired a desperate edge. The chief of the Nuclear Power Corporation of India Limited (NPCIL) claimed that a “foreign hand” was behind the protests. The former President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam, while assuring the locals that the reactors were “100% safe,” also wrote an article in The Hindu (“Special Essay,”...

-The Times of India   There seems to be no end in sight to the plight of farmers as Nafed, have not yet started procurement of the produce despite the season beginning almost a month back. CCI had earlier announced that it would enter the cotton trading but changed its stand later saying that it may begin purchases as per the open market trend. This has upset cotton growers. Lack of agreement between...

At BANCON (annual bankers' conference) 2011 in Chennai, financial institutions explored avenues for greater participation in agriculture and rural development. There are a few areas in need of additional attention and investment. Green Revolution technologies are scale-neutral but not resource-neutral. Inputs are needed for output; therefore market-purchased inputs become important in providing soil and plant healthcare for higher yields. Social scientists point out that small and marginal farmers will be excluded...

Gail Omvedt, an America-born Indian, is a social anthropologist trained in the radical academic setting of the University of California during the angry 1960s and the tumultuous 1970s. Her doctoral thesis on the “Non-Brahman movement in western India, 1873-1920” set the stage for her engagement with the subcontinent. Today, first-rate professionals are making a beeline for the West, but in Omvedt we have an instance of the ‘reverse flow' happening some...