A day before the Prime Minister of India left for a two-nation tour to Ireland and the United States this September, the National Health Profile 2015 was released by the Minister of Health and Family Welfare Shri JP Nadda. The report, which has presented a dismal picture of the state of public health, shows that cases of cancer is expected to rise in India by almost 15 percent from 11.5...

-Down to Earth India’s public spending on health is among the lowest in South East Asia and BRIC countries The burden of aspirations and expectations seems to be taking a toll on young India, especially males who succumb to suicidal deaths more than their female counterparts, according to the data published by the Central Bureau of Health Intelligence (CBHI). The data showed that over 67 per cent cases of suicidal deaths in...

-The Hindu Rescuing Maternal and Child Health-only systems, which have become under-resourced and have built a very high-cost but low-performance culture, will be a challenging task. Given the rising burden of non-communicable diseases, there is an increasing demand to build health systems that can address these concerns. However, given how large the unfinished agenda of the Millennium Development Goals is, the Indian government has chosen to stay focussed on Maternal and Child...

-Business Standard After outsourcing primary health care and diagnostic services to private entities, the state plans universal health insurance scheme for treatment at private hospitals The Rajasthan government has decided to provide health insurance to the 70 million residents in the state. The move comes after the government's decision to outsource primary health centres and specialised diagnostic services to private players on Public-Private Partnership (PPP) mode. The Swasthya Bima Yojana scheme is provided...

-Economic and Political Weekly The draft National Health Policy 2015 is an improvement over its predecessors--the policies of 1984 and 2002. However, it also reveals several gaps, inconsistencies and blind spots which tend to dilute otherwise constructive proposals. The purpose of this article is to open up the draft to further public debate and comment. Forum for Medical Ethics Society (fmesmumbai@gmail.com) is a voluntary, non-profit organisation registered in Mumbai. The society was...