-Economic and Political Weekly The draft National Health Policy 2015 is an improvement over its predecessors--the policies of 1984 and 2002. However, it also reveals several gaps, inconsistencies and blind spots which tend to dilute otherwise constructive proposals. The purpose of this article is to open up the draft to further public debate and comment. Forum for Medical Ethics Society (fmesmumbai@gmail.com) is a voluntary, non-profit organisation registered in Mumbai. The society was...

-DNA The nationwide one day strike according to the trade unions is supposed to be the biggest strike ever in the country. This protest is a strike against the anti-worker economic policies of the government. 10 central trade unions have declared a nation-wide strike on September 2 which is said to impact essential services. This strike is to protest against the changes that have been made in the labour laws by...

-The Indian Express The objective is to ensure that a standard minimum wage rate exists for all kinds of occupations. The government is seeking to significantly boost incomes of the country’s lowest paid workers by substantially raising the minimum wages payable to them, mandating payments through formal banking channels and ensuring they get social security benefits like provident fund and medical insurance. Fresh amendments are being readied to incorporate these changes to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre has decided to stop reimbursing states for the unsubsidised cooking gas cylinders they are forced to buy for the school midday meal scheme. A food security adviser expressed the fear that the Centre's decision may force states to fall back on firewood. But a former member of the National Advisory Council backed the decision, saying states should make use of the additional money they were getting...

-The Indian Express We can add millions of hectares to irrigated land without building a single new dam. We just need to adopt a different method of managing the water already stored in them. One of the drivers of India’s irrigation sector has been the construction of large dams on our rivers, which Jawaharlal Nehru famously described as “the temples of modern India”. While these dams have helped increase India’s irrigated...