Uttar Pradesh cabinet minister Laxmi Narain today claimed the state's new rehabilitation policy for land acquisition was "the best" in India. Addressing farmers, the Minister claimed he has studied the land acquisition policies of all states and the new rehabilitation policy in UP was formulated by a committee after scanning and evaluating other states' policies. He said that under the new policy farmers will get one time payment of Rs.1.85...

“Most common TB test is more than 125 years old; TB drugs are more than 40 years old” Microsoft chairman and philanthropist Bill Gates on Thursday said the large number of deaths in the world due to tuberculosis was unacceptable and the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation was all for supporting a low-cost affordable vaccine for the disease. “Whatever helps the poorest, we are committed to it,'' Mr. Gates said at...

Why are the erstwhile RTI campaigners so alarmed five years after it became law? Why so many Dharnas, rallies, conventions and hunger-strikes all over again? Part of the reason is that the silent revolution that the RTI has spawned needs to be defended from surreptitious alterations and manipulations, and partly because the RTI activists are being threatened, harassed and assaulted by the corrupt and the powerful, often with the connivance...

As a new rapid diagnostic test, endorsed by the WHO, will finally help detect more people with DR-TB DR-TB medicines are very expensive Need to improve access to DR-TB drugs As a new rapid diagnostic test, endorsed by the World Health Organisation (WHO), will finally help detect more people with drug-resistant tuberculosis (DR-TB), there was need to solve problems around the pricing and supply of DR-TB medicines, according to a report by international...

For universal access to quality TB care for all patients RNTCP initiated over 12.8 million patients on treatment It has initiated treatment of multi drug resistant-TB since 2007 Having achieved the global objectives of a new 70 per cent in case-detection and a treatment success rate of 85 per cent for the last three consecutive years, the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme (RNTCP) is being further revised with the objective of universal access...