Apparently, people across the country, bridging class, caste and income divides, are deliberately ensuring that girls are simply not born. The child sex ratio of 914 girls per 1,000 boys is a tragic situation and a poor reflection on India’s growth and development. This is in spite of laws, schemes, relentless activism and media campaigns spanning three decades in support of the girl child. According to activists and economists, a...

Tuberculosis re-emerges as a major threat as new drug-resistant strains develop because of mismanagement of the disease. At the beginning of the year, Doctors at Mumbai’s P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre reported that they had 12 patients infected with TDR-TB, or totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, a condition in which the TB bacilli is resistant to all first- and second-line drugs used in the conventional treatment of the disease. Panic...

-The Hindustan Times The Uttar Pradesh government on Tuesday backed the Bulandshahr district hospital staff a day after two ward boys were shown on TV giving injections and stitches to patients. Ayub and Shiva were caught on camera tending to the injured in the presence of senior Doctors, triggering an outrage. A probe was ordered. On Tuesday, additional director (health) Vinod Kumar almost gave a clean chit to chief medical superintendent Dr...

-The Indian Express India may not be a testing hub for Big Pharma. But informed consent must be non-negotiable Figures released by the World Health Organisation, which show that 10 Indian subjects of clinical field trials die every week, have rekindled concerns that this country has become a testing hub for Big Pharma. Ironically, the same figures deflate this persistent fear, revealing that only 1.5 per cent of global trials have been...

-The Economic Times It's not just the drug regulator, where a parliamentary panel has alleged corruption, failing in its job. Drug regulation across entities that dot this broad landscape is in poor health and ineffective. In May, when a Parliamentary panel, during a routine examination of healthcare regulatory bodies, alleged corruption in the approval of new drugs, it was merely pointing out one symptom. Such symptoms pervade the entire drug regulation landscape,...