-The Hindu Chief Medical Officers of 72 districts colluded with politicians and contractors in swindling funds meant for poor patients; the CBI has filed 82 cases so far Investigations into the Rs. 9,000-crore National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) scam in Uttar Pradesh have led to the arrest of 149 persons, with the Central Bureau of Investigation arraigning 350 people as accused in 82 cases of corruption, cheating, forgery and conspiracy registered so...

Rising prices of dal: How to deal with it? The 68th session of the United Nations General Assembly declared 2016 as the International Year of Pulses. In India, however, ordinary citizens are under enormous duress due to the skyrocketing prices of dal/ lentils since the last one year. The website of Price Monitoring Cell of the Department of Consumer Affairs shows that dal prices varied across places. For example, the...

-The Times of INdia Lucknow: Over 56% infant deaths reported in UP take place within first 28 days of birth. The phenomenon contributes tremendously to state's high infant mortality rate. The number translates into death of 1.51 lakh newborn babies. As many as 56 lakh babies are born in UP each year. Of these, 27 neonates per 1,000 live births die before they are four-week-old. Of the total, 36% deaths are reported...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Free health-care services during childbirth remain a pipe dream for most of India's poor, whether it relates to diagnostic tests, medicines, transport or even food, despite the Union health ministry launching a "free entitlements" programme five years ago. The families of most women who seek childbirth in government hospitals are forced to pay for supposedly "free" services, at times experiencing catastrophic expenditures likely to accentuate their poverty, two...

-DNA Taking up the gauntlet against alarming malnutrition in India, the Indian Council of Medical Research has announced a new comprehensive national nutrition survey, unlike any done before. This survey aims to unite the efforts and data of all scattered surveys that have happened in the country, the Rapid Action Survey of Children (RSoC), the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) for example,and bring on board as equal stakeholders the union ministries of...