-The Hindu The Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana to provide health insurance cover is likely to be extended to more people among the vulnerable sections. This was decided at a Union Cabinet meeting, which reviewed the scheme on Thursday. The scheme has already been extended to MGNREGS beneficiaries, street vendors, domestic workers, beedi workers and those working at building and construction SITes. “The scheme has been extended to a few segments of unorganised workers....
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The myth of Dalit capitalism by Akshay Deshmane
Till recently, I did not know of a single movie, let alone documentary, which could persuade a viewer to SIT under the open sky on an unusually wintry night for over three hours. On Monday night, I was in an audience of about 200 for one such documentary, Jai Bheem Comrade, by activist-filmmaker Anand Patwardhan. It was with much curioSITy and anticipation that I went for the first Indian public screening...
More »Low score on N-security by GS Mudur
A non-government assessment has ranked India third from the bottom among the world’s nine nuclear armed states in its ability to secure nuclear materials from theft, with only Pakistan and North Korea with lower scores. The nuclear materials security index, released by the US-based non-profit Nuclear Threat Initiative (NIT) yesterday, is described as “the first, public baseline assessment of the status of nuclear materials security conditions” worldwide. A panel of nuclear and...
More »Fears of a TDR-TB epidemic rise by Somita Pal
If last week’s DNA report on 12 cases of totally drug resistant (TDR) tuberculosis (TB) cases found in PD Hinduja hospital was alarming, there is more reason to worry. The Maharashtra State Anti-Tuberculosis Association affiliated to the directorate of health services at the Centre registered two TDR-TB cases in 2011. Officials from Sewri hospital, one of the largest TB hospitals in Asia, are also getting several TDR-TB cases. While the association lost...
More »HIV 10 times more prevalent among migrants than general population by Kounteya Sinha
Migration is fuelling India's HIV epidemic. National AIDS Control Organisation's latest figures show that besides high risk populations like sex workers, the highest burden of HIV is among migrants - 3.6%, which is 10 times the HIV prevalence among the general population. With migration rates increasing, the prevalence will only get worse. According to the 2001 census, 30.1% of the population was considered to have migrated (314 million) - a considerable...
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