-The Hindu Patients face discrimination because public health systems and schools are not equipped to deal with the problem Bengaluru: “The cost of my daughter's treatment is around Rs. 1 crore per annum. If it were not for the aid of a United States-based foundation, I would not be able to help her,” said Prasanna B. Shirol, founder-director, Organisation for Rare Diseases India. His teenage daughter suffers from Pompe Disease, a rare...

-Down to Earth The Centre has promised more money to panchayats, but there is many a slip between cup and lip Like last year, the budget for the financial year 2016-17 also had a much-desirable provision. Last year, the government had increased the share of states in the Central divisible pool by 10 per cent after accepting the recommendations of the 14th Finance Commission. This year, the government has accepted another big...

-The Hindu The Longitudinal Ageing Study of India is to follow the health and socio-economic condition of 60,000 Indians over the age of 45 for at least 25 years and report on how growing old affects the country Half of India’s over 1.2 billion population is 25 years or younger, with only about nine per cent over 60 years. Over the next three decades this is expected to balloon to 20 per...

-The Indian Express In Marathwada’s worst-hit districts of Beed, Osmanabad and Latur, households now have an uncompromising priority list of expenses as an economy hit by years of near-total crop failure goes into a tailspin. Beed/ Osmanabad: About 65 kilometres from the cracked earth that was once their source of income, Mandakini Mujmule, in her forties, and her daughter Anita, 21, have spent 16 days in Beed city’s government hospital. Mandakini has...

-The Hindu More than a year after 13 women died in a mass sterilisation camp in Chhattisgarh, it is far from clear whether lessons have been learnt or justice done Sixteen months after a mass sterilisation camp conducted by the government of Chhattisgarh resulted in 13 deaths and 65 injuries, viscera reports — from the Central Forensic Science Laboratory in Ramanthapur, Hyderabad, and from the Central Drugs Laboratory, Kolkata, to go with...