'Women in urban slums need a basket of Healthcare services to meet their needs' As the Centre mulls a national urban Health mission on the lines of the existing National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), a study indicates that the mission may need some tweaking to deliver Healthcare services to the urban poor. While women groups and accredited social Health activists (ASHAs) have a big role to play in reducing maternal and...

Only 22 compensated in four years, admits drugs controller during RTI hearing As many as 2,031 people in India have died because of the clinical drug trials they were subjected to in the past four years. Only 22 of them have been compensated. What's more, no action has been taken so far against any pharma company, ethics committee that oversees clinical trials or contract research organisation that conducts the trials, which...

-The Telegraph The Bengal government’s hands-off stand on land has found its way into its PPP policy, the public-private partnership mantra that was supposed to neutralise adversities and make the state attractive for investors. The new triple-P policy, notified by the state finance department on June 21, makes it clear the state government cannot acquire land for private investors even if they are willing to partner the state in its pet projects. The...

-The Guardian  Use of Sodium Pentothal to secure confessions – classified by some as torture – still common in certain regions of India It is the sort of scene that belongs in a film noir, not a 21st-century democracy: an uncooperative suspect being injected with a dose of "truth serum" in an attempt to elicit a confession. But some detectives in India still swear by so-called narcoanalysis despite India's highest court ruling...

-IANS Eating fruits and vegetables every day can reduce your risk of developing heart disease by 20 percent, a World Health Organization (WHO) study showed.  Death rates from heart disease are twice as high among people who eat diets high in saturated fat, trans fats and salt such as junk food, Xinhua quoted the study as saying. More people around the world die from cardiovascular diseases than any other causes.  These diseases were responsible...