-The Times of India Fears that policy paralysis will continue after the Congress party's poor show in the Uttar Pradesh assembly elections unnerved investors, and the sensex lost 190 points on Tuesday to end the day at 17173, its worst close in six weeks. The trepidation in the markets also affected shares of a few Anil Ambani-promoted Reliance Group companies, even though they were actually expected to gain because of the...

-IANS   In a major boost to the healthcare sector, total government expenditure on health would be increased to 2.5 percent of the gross domestic product (GDP) by 2017, the Prime Minister's Office (PMO) said on Wednesday. The decision was taken in a meeting held in the PMO on the government's priorities in health sector, particularly over the next five years. "The meeting decided that we must work towards increasing the total government health...

Lax policemen made Jharkhand’s borders porous and helped child trafficking, a shocked National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) found on its second day of public hearing here today. In the cases that came to the commission for hearing, it was revealed that the police sat idle and deaf to frantic pleas of people whose minor children went missing. The members of the commission rebuked the state police for being...

While welcoming the report of the High Level Expert Group on Universal Health Coverage for India for its comprehensive vision and many well-conceived recommendations, this article focuses on the conditions needed for its promise to bear fruit. Towards this, it explores the political dimension, which comprises the forces and interests that come into play to shape and reconfigure administrative policy and its implementation.   We are grateful to Anand Zachariah and Susie...

The Law Commission recommends making Section 498A, IPC, compoundable, and women's groups say that would affect women's interests. A REPORT of the Law Commission of India on “Compounding of (IPC) Offences” suggesting that Section 498A of the Indian Penal Code, which prescribes punishment for a husband or his relatives for subjecting a woman to cruelty, be made compoundable with the permission of the court, is fraught with several implications. The report...