Regulations covering public health should override personal rights and the country cannot wait any more for a good public health law. The health care industry, including institutions of medical education, hospitals and pharmaceutical businesses, have grown into behemoths that can do considerable harm in the absence of independent and effective regulatory systems. While there are no success stories in the regulation of any kind of industry in India, I will focus...

-The Hindustan Times A US court has ruled that neither Union Carbide Corporation (UCC) nor its former chairman Warren Anderson were liable for environmental remediation (reversing or stopping environmental damage) or pollution-related claims by those living around its now-defunct plant in Bhopal, where a gas leak in 1984 killed thousands of people. US district judge John Keenan in Manhattan on Tuesday dismissed a lawsuit by Bhopal residents seeking to hold UCC, which...

-The Economic Times Sowing has picked up in Andhra Pradesh following good rains in the last two days. But farmers in Maharashtra are worried with the scarce reservoir water being kept aside for drinking purpose.  "Only 8% sowing has been completed till now. Crops of moong and urad have been affected the most. Standing crops are also getting affected due to water shortage as groundwater has gone down and there is no...

-PTI India’s monsoon, vital for Asia’s third-largest economy, has been 22% deficient till June 26, official data showed, adding to the government’s worries and prompting Prime Minister Manmohan Singh to consult key aides on measures to tone up the economy on Wednesday. In a revised forecast, the Met department predicted the rains would be 96% of the long-term average, lower than its April forecast of 99%. Rainfall is considered normal if...

-The Hindu Hygiene and sanitation will be the focus of the next round of sample survey across the country that will begin on July 1. K.P. Unnikrishnan, Deputy Director-General, National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO), South zone, said here on Monday that source and availability of drinking water and housing conditions too would be included in the survey. In the south of Karnataka, including Bangalore district, 76 villages and 116 urban blocks have been...