-Down to Earth TB programme grappling with lack of funds; weak enforcement of standards another problem A joint initiative of the government, independent experts and civil society has found that multidrug-resistant tuberculosis (MDR-TB) is emerging as a major health problem in India. Moreover, delay in treatment of MD-RTB is the main reason behind increasing antibiotic resistance, especially towards drug Rifampicin. The findings have been established by Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) 2015 of...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: In a big relief to India Inc, the Modi Government will be moving amendments to the Prevention of Corruption (Amendment) Act, 2013 brought by the UPA, to ensure corporate bosses are not in the dock unless they have expressly connived in or consented to a corrupt act of their juniors. The original bill brought in 2013 to amend the 1988 Prevention of Corruption Act extended the liability...

The India Country Report 2015 on Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) comes at a time when the Union Budget 2015-16 allegedly cut expenditure on several social sector schemes and programmes. This year's MDG country report says that India will fail to achieve two important targets pertaining to reducing hunger and maternal mortality by 2015, among others. Released by the Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation (MoSPI), the report says that India is...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The panchayati raj ministry, created by the UPA government to drive Rajiv Gandhi's idea of empowering gram sabhas, is struggling to remain relevant under the Narendra Modi regime. Finance minister Arun Jaitley, in his budget presentation, slashed the panchayati raj ministry's plan outlay to a meagre Rs 94 crore in 2015-16 from Rs 7,000 crore this fiscal, and transferred its flagship schemes - the Backward Regions Grants...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: The minimum support price for minor forest produce (MFP), an initiative conceived as the next MNREGA and a welfare plan to cover about 100 million tribals, is floundering in the first year of its implementation. Two of the nine states, where the ambitious programme had to be implemented, have still not agreed to do away with the established system of procuring MFP and introducing the new procedure....