-Down to Earth/ India Science Wire Preferences change depending on factors including level of education, size of family, status as main earner A major challenge faced by the Indian health system is to keep its Accredited Social Health Activists (ASHAs) motivated and retain them in service. A new study has found that ASHA workers get motivated most by prospects of promotions than other factors. Researchers from The George Institute for Global Health and...

-The Telegraph Nearly 80 per cent of SC, ST and OBC students who cracked NEET cleared the cut-off meant for general-category students The results of the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, declared on Wednesday, have shown that aspiring doctors from underprivileged social backgrounds are no less than general-category students when it comes to merit. Nearly 80 per cent of students from among the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and Other Backward Classes who cracked the NEET...

-The Telegraph Call to colleges to take urgent action Two health networks on Tuesday called on medical education institutions to take steps to protect their students from caste-based discrimination that allegedly led a young doctor to commit suicide in Mumbai on May 22. The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA) and the Medico Friends Circle (MFC) have labelled the suicide of Payal Tadvi, a doctor from an Adivasi community pursuing postgraduate studies in gynaecology at...

-The Indian Express To fulfil the constitutional requirement, reservation must be based on a rigorous identification of economic backwardness. The introduction of the 124th constitutional amendment that provides the possibility of quotas for the “economically weaker sections” (EWS) has rekindled the debate on reservations. These quotas diverge from reservation policies for the Scheduled Castes, Scheduled Tribes and other socially and educationally backward classes, by jettisoning caste or community identity as the...

-The Telegraph Some clauses of the draft of the Indian Forest Act 2019 are extraordinarily undemocratic Forests are considered planetary resources of great importance: as carbon sinks, as repositories for biodiversity, as effective tools for local climate control, and as a source of timber and related produce. Forests have been dwelling places for people, too. It is important from the point of view of sustainable development that forests be preserved and biodiversity...