-The Hindu Over 95 per cent of patients coming to super-speciality hospitals are at the wrong place and have incurred hardships when they could have been treated at their neighbourhood primary care centre. A number of announcements have been made by the Central and State governments on their intent to offer Universal Health Care (UHC). These welcome developments are timely as India is now rapidly becoming one of the few countries that...

-The Times of India CHANDIGARH: Apparently impressed with targeted public distribution system (TPDS) of BJP-ruled Chhattisgarh, Haryana's Manohar Lal Khattar government has decided to examine the same to find out its relevance to the state. Haryana additional chief secretary (food and supplies) S S Prasad told TOI that they would soon send a team to Chhattisgarh to study the PDS system. "It we found it relevant for Haryana, then it would be...

-The Hindu Business Line The Centre has adopted a pragmatic approach to cooking gas subsidies The reintroduction of the direct benefits transfer scheme for the supply of cooking gas, after its withdrawal in March this year, is a welcome signal that subsidy targeting is back on the policy agenda. Unlike its UPA avatar, cash transfers will now be based on LPG consumers providing their bank account numbers, rather than Aadhaar numbers, to...

-The Third Pole Villagers in India's Greater Noida district could be the latest victims of groundwater contamination with reports of increased cancer cases spurring investigations and concern about the situation elsewhere in the country The perils of groundwater contamination were again in the spotlight recently when media reports about drinking water causing cancer surfaced from five villages in an industrial belt on the outskirts of the Indian capital New Delhi. As medical experts...

-The Hindu Business Line   The Open Government Data initiative is gaining ground, but it needs to be in step with the Central Information Commission Open government data (OGD) is fashionable. Governments and public institutions in Europe and other parts of the globe are making increasing numbers of datasets available to the public by means of national, regional, local or thematic portals, in keeping with their political commitments towards open government and open...