-The Hindu Strategic shifts are needed in the level of government control on the financing and provision of health India spends close to 5% of its GDP on health. While this may appear low when compared to 18% of the U.S., data show that Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) countries spend 8-11%, middle-income countries close to 6%, and India’s peers, the lower-middle-income countries 4.5%. By these measures, India’s health-care spending,...

-Down to Earth Sixty-four countries are on track to meet Millennium Development Goal of reversing the incidence of malaria, according to a WHO report WHO's World Malaria Report 2014 has reported a significant decrease in deaths due to malaria. Mortality rates due to the disease have reduced by 47 per cent worldwide and 54 per cent in the WHO African region. The report estimates that of approximately 4.3 million deaths averted between 2001...

-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 Indian Express Mumbai: Shweta Katti, who grew up in Mumbai's red light district of Kamathipura, had her first breakthrough when she made it to the Bard College in New York last year. Now, there is another reason for the 19-year-old to celebrate: She has been selected by the United Nations Special Envoy for Education for the Youth Courage Award, given to girls from around the world for showing exemplary courage...

-SocialProgressImperative.org The 2014 Social Progress Index reveals striking differences across countries in their social performance, highlights the very different strengths and weaknesses of individual countries, and provides concrete guidance for national policy agendas. The Index is the sum of three dimensions: Basic Human Needs, Foundations of Wellbeing, and Opportunity. Each dimension is made up of four equally weighted individual components scored on an objective scale from 0-100. This scale is determined by...