-The Hindu The CAG, after completing this month a detailed ‘internal appraisal’ of two of its most high-profile reports, has not just stood by its findings “regardless of media comments and the statements made by senior functionaries of the government,” but also substantiated them, citing additional crucial events. The internal assessment has been done on its reports on the 2G spectrum scam of November 2010 and Civil Aviation (Air India) of September...

Regulations covering public health should override personal rights and the country cannot wait any more for a good public health law. The health care industry, including institutions of medical education, hospitals and pharmaceutical businesses, have grown into behemoths that can do considerable harm in the absence of independent and effective regulatory systems. While there are no success stories in the regulation of any kind of industry in India, I will focus...

The Bill to regulate medical education and govern human resource in health is a highly diluted version of the original draft. Distortions in the area of Human Resource for Health (HRH) are the root cause of many of the ills facing the health sector in India. Among them is the shortage of qualified medical professionals. The estimated density of 19 health workers (qualified and unqualified) per 10,000 population is nearly 25...

-The Business Standard The state govt is set to redefine Public Distribution System by linking it with insurance smart cards Several experiments are taking place across the country to make the Public Distribution System (PDS) free of leakages. Chhattisgarh that has led these is set to mark a new precedent with its PDS going smart in the next three months. The state government has reached an agreement with the labour ministry to...

-The Hindu An odd job that was going to earn her some extra money happened to turn 23-year-old Aarthi Jaiswal into a voice for her neighbourhood in Jahangirpuri here. A few months ago she and a group of her friends were hired for Rs.150 per day to conduct a house-to-house survey asking for people’s opinion on the Delhi Government’s proposal to replace the Public Distribution System with direct cash transfers into...