-The Times of India Bhagalpur: Sanju Devi (55), a resident of Tailath village in Khagaria district, had never thought that her innovative practices in farming on a small piece of land near her house would fetch her laurels and hog the limelight at the Kisan Mela 2016 organized by Bihar Agricultural University (BAU) at Sabour in Bhagalpur district. Sanju grows high-yielding vegetables, including mushrooms, rears honeybees and runs poultry by adopting integrated...

-The Hindu We cannot permit gross inequality-linked deprivation to leave its malign signature on the lives of those who are yet to come. As long as the problems of the poor are not radically resolved by rejecting the absolute autonomy of the markets and financial speculation, and by attacking the structural causes of inequality, no solution can be found for the world’s problems. Inequality is the root of social ills. —...

-The Hindu If the Indian government is serious about its commitment to realise the rights of its citizens to universal and equitable health care, it cannot ignore rare DISEases. The draft National Health Policy, 2015, makes no mention of them Rare DISEases are a diverse set of over 7,000 different conditions that afflict an estimated 1 in 20 Indians and 350 million people worldwide. Put simply, it means that every bus on...

-The Pioneer The Modi Government’s campaign to end open defecation is welcome but building new toilets alone will not solve the problem Politically, sanitation is a hot topic but the focus has to shift to the villages. Open defecation is still a common practice in many villages. The plan is to achieve the Clean India target by 2019 to coincide with the 150th birth anniversary of Mahatma Gandhi. Every year, health payments...

-TheWire.in When the data tells us insurance-based health schemes have not reduced out-of-pocket expenditure for the poor, Jaitley’s budgetary focus should have been on boosting public provision of health care. Despite sustained economic growth for over two decades, improvements in health indicators in India have not kept pace. By 2015, India was able to meet only four out of the ten health targets set under the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) for that...