New drug pricing policy proposes bringing all essential medicines under price control, but makes them expensive After years of dilly-dallying and several Supreme Court reminders, the Centre has proposed to bring all essential drugs under price control. But the policy is nothing but hogwash. Its pricing mechanism would make essential medicines out of reach for most people. Public health experts have termed the draft National Pharmaceutical Pricing Policy of 2011 a...

-The Telegraph A Centre-appointed committee of experts has declared the Kudankulam nuclear plant safe, prompting the group opposing the facility to say it is unlikely to participate in further talks to resolve the standoff. “We have found the plant to be safe and any fear about the after-effects of its commissioning is not based on scientific facts,” A.E. Muthunaygam, convener of the expert committee, told reporters at nearby Tirunelveli today. The comments followed...

Civil society groups on Tuesday came out strongly against the Centre’s draft National Food Security Bill, which has not incorporated the National Advisory Council’s suggestion for providing maternity entitlements to about 15 crore women in the informal (non-Government) sector, as in the Central Government, thereby denying food security (breast feeding) to infants.  Similarly, the current legal guarantee of 'hot cooked meals' for children attending anganwadis has been diluted by providing the...

-The Hindu   The Finance Ministry had approved the changes in the draft National Food Security Bill that were incorporated after taking the views of the Department of Women and Child Development as well as those posted on the Food Ministry's website, Minister of State for Food and Public Distribution K.V. Thomas said on Thursday. The Ministry would soon bring to the Cabinet a revised draft after incorporating the comments of the Ministries...

-The Times of India   The Central Information Commission has directed the external affairs ministry to comply with the norms of statutory suo-moto disclosures to be made under the Right to Information Act.  The move comes following a complaint that some information given on the ministry's website under Section 4 of the RTI Act, which relates to proactive disclosures by a public authority, was not complete and comprehensive.  Complainant Saurabh Sharma alleged that the...