-The Hindu The 65th World Health Assembly meeting in Geneva has identified universal health coverage as a key imperative for all countries, if their goal is to consolidate the public health advances achieved so far. Several countries have been working to reform their health system over the past two or three decades. The Assembly, which is the decision making body of the World Health Organization, adopted the concept of Universal Health...

-The Telegraph The government today set up an expert committee to suggest a new methodology for determining who is poor and who is not, following widespread condemnation of its existing criteria last year. However, the five-member committee headed by C. Rangarajan, chairman of the Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council, will also examine the existing methodology, which was suggested by a previous expert panel formed under Suresh Tendulkar. Tendulkar’s methodology was solely based on...

In a Bangladeshi folk story, a disabled grandfather is carried by his son in a basket, to be abandoned in the forest. On seeing this, the grandson calls out, 'Father, please be sure to bring back the basket. I will need it when you grow old'. Three thousand ageing men and women gathered in Delhi in the blazing midsummer heat to demand a universal pension for all aged people, not...

A panel headed by the PM's chief economic advisor C Rangarajan has recommended exporting 2 million tonnes (mt) of wheat at a subsidy of Rs 1,500 crore through government channels and another 1 mt through private traders at a subsidy of Rs 150 crore. Warning that just exports would not be enough to manage the overflowing godowns and could cause political problems, the panel has also recommended distribution of 8 mt...

It will again divide the people, says CPI(M) general secretary Stating that the proposed Food Security Bill is “inadequate,” Communist Party of India (Marxist) general secretary Prakash Karat said on Sunday that the Left parties will stage an agitation pressing for the inclusion of everyone, irrespective of whether they are classified as below or above the poverty line. Speaking at a public rally on the outskirts of the city, he said that...