-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India will soon have separate guidelines for eye donations and transplantation. The Union health ministry, in its bid to augment eye donations in the country, has set up a committee, headed by the chief of R P Eye Centre at AIIMS, Dr R V Azad, to frame new rules which will separate eye retrieval and transplant from organ donations. "Unlike a heart, kidney and other organs,...

-PTI Drug regulator DGCI is conducting a "focussed scrutiny" of medicines sold by Ranbaxy and some other drug makers, but says it remains confident of the quality standards of Indian medicines despite concerns raised by US authorities over some of Ranbaxy's products. While the company continues to assert that its drugs meet all regulatory standards, a few hospitals and pharmacies have adopted a cautious stand on use of its products. However, a majority...

-The Telegraph The medical fraternity is worried over the seizure of sub-standard and fake drugs, at times lethal for patients. Police on Wednesday seized 30 boxes of suspected spurious drugs from a cart in the Gandhi Maidan area. Station House Officer of Gandhi Maidan police station Rajbindu Prasad said nobody could produce transaction bills for the consignment. The drugs seized were ofloxacin (for respiratory tract infections), oflozen (for typhoid), ossopan (calcium tablets prescribed...

-The Business Standard Madhya Pradesh Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan on the launch of the second phase of the Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana, ahead of the Centre's proposed food security legislation. Edited excerpts of an interview with Sanjay Jog: * What are the key features of the second phase of the Mukhya Mantri Annapurna Yojana (MAY), launched from this month? This will benefit 35 million people, including 5.5 mn below the poverty line...

-The Hindu     Lawmakers are eager to appear resolute in the fight against crime, but seem to forget that certainty of punishment, not severity, is the real deterrent "An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind," said Mahatma Gandhi. The death penalty is unjust and inhuman. Its continued use is a stain on a society built on humanitarian values, and it should be abolished immediately. Many think that there could be nothing wrong...