-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's government-funded health insurance schemes have increased patients' access to hospitalisation but failed to reduce their households' personal out-of-pocket healthcare expenses, the most comprehensive review of the schemes so far has found. The review by public health analysts has found increases ranging from 12 per cent to 244 per cent in hospital-based services across the country since the schemes were launched a decade ago. But there is no...

-The Hindu The welfare challenge lies in providing assistance to needy households to ensure adequate diets without creating conditions in which they opt for inferior diets that are too heavy on cereals With the Kerala government’s decision to implement the National Food Security Act (NFSA) from April, the whole country will be covered by the legislation. However, if we expect the NFSA to improve India’s malnutrition statistics, we may well be disappointed....

-Business Standard Advisory will also have information on the type of crop needing to be sown, depending on irrigation India Meteorological Department (IMD) plans to change its weather advisory service for farmers, linking it to a dynamic crop calendar of each district, based on the onset and progress of the monsoon. The advisory will also have information on the type of crop needing to be sown, depending on irrigation and rain in that...

-Livemint.com The Comprehensive National Nutrition Survey, being conducted by Unicef and the health ministry, is the first of its kind in terms of sample size and parameters Devthala village, in Rajasthan’s Jaipur district, is abuzz with ‘medical’ activity. In one of its dwellings, a six-year-old’s height, weight, arm length, waist size as well as grip strength are being measured by one of half a dozen surveyors. A Unicef delegation is watching over...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: A survey of children's learning levels has found that Class V and Class VIII students performed as poorly in arithmetic in 2016 as they did in 2014 but Class III kids did marginally better.   The Annual Status of Education Report (ASER) released today also found little change in the enrolment figures in private schools. About 30.5 per cent children of the 6-14 age group were enrolled in private...