-The Hindu The focus must be on enhancing rape conviction rates and taking steps to rehabilitate and empower survivors Amid belligerent demands for capital punishment for rapists, on Sunday the President signed an ordinance that introduces the death penalty for those convicted of raping girls below the age of 12. But this clamour for introducing the most stringent punishment has conveniently sidestepped the more cogent criticism of the systemic failures in addressing...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The first nationwide survey for drug-resistant tuberculosis has found nearly 3 per cent of first-time patients and 12 per cent of those previously treated infected with multi-drug-resistant TB, lowering uncertainty over the scale of the problem. The survey by the Union health ministry has also revealed wide variations in state-level patterns of drug-resistant TB, indicating that the national-level estimates might mask local epidemics that need to be addressed...

-Scroll.in To spend 2.5% of GDP on healthcare by 2025, the centre and state governments must increase healthcare allocation by 24% over the same period of time. Healthcare needs continue to cause financial hardship to people across India. The National Health Accounts 2014-’15 report reveals that more than two-thirds of total spending on health (67%) is household out-of-pocket expenditure. The report tracks how much money is spent on health and how money...

-Down to Earth Can we not go from being poor but unhealthy to being rich and healthy? Why should we inherit diseases that can be junked? In June 2017, British medical journal Lancet published a review of the prevalence of diabetes in 15 states of India. This study by a group of medical practitioners, funded by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), has worrying numbers. It finds that while some...

-PTI Kolkata: The Calcutta High Court directed the West Bengal government on Friday to file an action taken report on the dengue menace that has affected a large number of people in the state. A division bench comprising acting Chief Justice Jyotirmoy Bhattacharya and Justice Arijit Banerjee directed the state government to submit the report by coming Friday when a set of PILs seeking steps to control the vector-borne disease and compensation...