-Down to Earth     Series of papers calls for engaging private sector in fighting malnutrition Lancet, the world's leading general medical journal, recently published four papers on nutrition. Its plan to release the papers formally in India on Friday has angered the country's public health experts. Lancet has called for engaging private sector in fighting malnutrition. UNICEF estimates say about 46 per cent of all children below three in India are too small...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In yet another twist to the Ranbaxy scandal, the drug regulatory authority of the UK government has issued a statement clarifying that they have found no evidence of any Ranbaxy product in the UK market having been "of unacceptable quality". Last month, WHO had issued a similar statement. It had said that there was no evidence of any of the Ranbaxy products being of unacceptable...

-PTI BHUBanESWAR: Cautious after the devastation in Uttarakhand, Odisha government on Wednesday asked all district collectors to ensure that no brick kiln operated on river beds. Revenue and disaster management minister S N Patro said the flood situation in Uttarakhand had worsened due to large constructions on the river Banks and flouting of environmental laws. In Odisha, unscrupulous persons were setting up unauthorised brick kilns along the rivers which lead to erosion of...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Several nutrition experts and members of the Indian Academy of Paediatrics, the largest association of paediatricians in India, have warned that the new set of papers on malnutrition published in the medical journal, Lancet, "should not be allowed to become an opportunity for commercial exploitation of malnutrition". "The call for engaging with the "private sector" and unregulated marketing of commercial foods for preventing malnutrition in children...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: The government has Banned three popular medicines-the widely prescribed anti-diabetes drug pioglitazone, painkiller analgin and anti-depressant deanxit-in the wake of health risks associated with them. While it's believed that pioglitazone can cause heart failure and increases the risk of bladder cancer, analgin has been discarded the world over on grounds of patient safety. Deanxit, on the other hand is a harmful combination, which has been long...