THE controversy over Maggi instant noodles has once again highlighted the issues plaguing food safety in India. Not only does the issue raise critical questions about safe food production by multinational companies such as Nestle but it also foregrounds the institutional fault lines when it comes to ensuring food safety. Frontline spoke to Sunita Narain, who heads the New Delhi-based Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), the organisation instrumental in initiating...
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Financing for Health Coverage in India: Issues and Concerns -Indrani Gupta & Samik Chowdhury
-Institute of Economic Growth The paper explores the trends, composition, and incidence of out-of-pocket health expenditure (OOPHE) in India, which has been the predominant means of financing its health care needs. Unit-level data from the National Sample Survey on Household Consumer Expenditure for the years 1993–94, 2004–05, and 2011–12 are used. Results show that the burden of OOPHE has increased steadily over time, but more for the lower economic quintiles. Drugs...
More »Detergent found in Mother Dairy milk sample, company denies charge -Arvind Chauhan
-The Times of India AGRA: Hot on the heels of state food safety officials exposing presence of more-than-permissible levels of lead and monosodium glutamate (MSG) content in Nestle's instant noodle brand Maggi, food safety and drug administration (FSDA) in Agra has found presence of detergent in milk samples of Mother Dairy, which is owned by National Dairy Development Board of India. FSDA's designated officer Ramnaresh Yadav, who exposed the adulteration, told TOI,...
More »Medical devices like stents, implants set to come under price control -Rupali Mukherjee
-The Times of India MUMBAI: Faced with complaints of overpricing of medical devices like cardiac stents and implants, the government seems to be finally getting its act together. According to a government official, in a string of measures to regulate the industry under the Draft National Medical Device Policy, it has recommended creating an autonomous body — the National Medical Devices Authority (NDMA) — pricing control for medical devices by including them...
More »Callous habits catch up with noodles and more -GS Mudur
-The Telegraph New Delhi: Biochemist Thuppil Venkatesh says he is not surprised by claims of food safety regulators in Uttar Pradesh and Delhi that they have detected lead, a potential toxin to humans, in Maggi noodles. For over a decade, Venkatesh, professor emeritus at St John's Medical College, Bangalore, has been trying to warn the country about what he says are dangerous levels of lead in the environment that may slip into...
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