-Live Mint Health ministry’s plan for a shorter medical degree course is aimed at addressing manpower shortage in rural healthcare A parliamentary committee on Tuesday rejected the health ministry’s plan to introduce a shorter medical degree course aimed at addressing manpower shortages in rural healthcare. It said the proposed Bachelor in Rural Healthcare course would legitimize differences in the quality of medical treatment in rural and urban settings.   “We discussed the issue at length...

-The Times of India JABALPUR: When Rajkumar Ahirwar accepted an offer on March 13 to go to the neighborhood adda (local pub) from Deepak Rajak, a casual acquaintance, he had little idea what awaited him. The 22-year-old from Ashok Nagar woke up from his drunken stupor in a government district hospital the next day with a certificate in his pocket that said he had been vasectomised. In a bid to achieve sterilisation...

-The Hindu PUDUCHERRY: The child sex ratio (for ages 0 to 6) in the Union Territory has fallen from 967 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2001, to 965 girls for every 1,000 boys in 2011. In order to improve this ratio, the health officials from the Union Territory will be meeting health and family welfare officials from the neighbouring States of Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh and Kerala. According to a study conducted...

-IANS Delhi Police on Tuesday gave clean chit to eight people booked in constable Subhash Tomar's death during the anti-rape protests here in December last year. Appearing for the police, additional solicitor general (ASG) Sidharth Luthra told the court that no evidence was found to link the eight accused to the constable's death. However, Luthra said that they were involved in destruction of public property near India Gate during the protests against the...

-The Telegraph Sex offenders in prison often find themselves positioned on the lowest rungs of a hierarchy of inmates, which exposes them to particularly bad treatment from fellow prisoners, psychologists who have studied jail violence have said. They say the phenomenon is believed to be widespread and, in some countries, has prompted law-enforcement authorities to segregate sex offenders from other inmates in prisons where they are viewed as vulnerable to physical attacks. Delhi...