-The Financial Express Barley has 5.66% soluble fibre per 100 grams, the highest among cereals consumed in India, while parboiled, milled rice has 0.76% and atta or wheat flour, 1.63%. Gooseberry (amla) is the richest source of vitamin C (252 mg per 100 grams)—no points for guessing—followed by pink-fleshed guava (222 mg). Curry leaves have more beta carotene, a source of vitamin A, at 7,663 micrograms per 100 gram serving than...

-Down to Earth The average cost of drug eluting stent for domestic companies is around Rs 8,000 but it is sold to patients for Rs 24,000 to Rs 1.5 lakh In a decision that will benefit thousands of people in the country, the National Pharmaceutical Pricing Authority (NPPA) has finally put a ceiling on prices of cardiac stent—a small mesh tube that's used to treat narrow or weak arteries. Cardiac stents...

-The Indian Express Linking of Aadhaar to a growing number of government entitlements is misguided LAST week the Union food ministry issued an unprecedented diktat. It has insisted that each family member must possess an Aadhaar number within four months, to be eligible for subsidised foodgrains under the National Food Security Act. This ties in with the larger plan for all ration shops by 2019 to verify Aadhaar biometrics at every...

-Hindustan Times Alwar: The country’s first minority cyber village project has died a quiet death in Rajasthan’s Alwar, barely 150km from New Delhi, amid the chorus for Digital India. With that died hopes of several schoolchildren who were dreaming big after meeting Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg. In February 2014, the government launched a “minority cyber-gram” project in Chandoli village, where more than 70% of people are Meo Muslims. The project was aimed at...

-Economic and Political Weekly Rajesh Mishra (rajeshnipccd@yahoo.com) is working with the National Institute of Public Cooperation and Child Development, Ministry of Women and Child Development, GoI, Indore.   A research study conducted in three tribal districts— Alirajpur, Barwani and Khandwa—of Madhya Pradesh, based on a sample of 294 women with their last child in the age-group of six months–five years analyses the status and determinants of malnutrition and child death. Despite certain infant...