-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: As many as nine central government departments, including the railways and the ministries of finance, commerce and petroleum, could be in the dock for flouting employment laws governing contract workers. The Central Labour Commissioner has sought compliance reports for contract workers deployed in several ministries, including the commissioner's own office in the labour ministry, which uses the services of 20 contract employees via a private software firm. The...

-The Hindu Lax monitoring, poor public engagement and inadequate training to vaccinators have dealt a serious blow to the crucial pentavalent immunisation programme The Pentavalent vaccine, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare's latest addition to the immunisation programme, has run into a storm. The Supreme Court has sent a notice to the Ministry asking why the vaccine should not be banned in the country. The vaccine is no stranger to controversy. A...

-The Times of India LONDON: India is recording a whopping 5.2 million injuries each year due to medical errors and adverse events. Of these, the biggest sources are mishaps from medications, hospital-acquired infections and blood clots that develop in legs from being immobilized in the hospital. Similarly, approximately 3 million years of healthy life are lost in India each year due to these injuries. A landmark report by an Indian doctor from Harvard School...

-The Hindu It is the only sector that can create jobs and prevent the economic crisis from deepening In the last two decades, the Indian economy has witnessed a transformational change to emerge as one of the fastest growing economies in the world. Economic reforms unveiled in 1991 have brought about a structural shift enabling the private sector to assume a much larger role in the economy. GDP growth has largely been...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India's infant mortality rate (IMR) has shown a minor decline last year compared to 2011. However, West Bengal and Assam - the worst performer - have shown no improvement at all, bucking the national trend of a decline in infant deaths by 4.5% - from 44 deaths for every 1,000 live births in 2011 to 42 fatalities the next year. A combination of causes like low...