-The Hindu Business Line How the Indian State metamorphosed from protector of the poor to facilitator of the private health industry If there is correlation between two incidents of the Central Government announcing cuts in the health budget and dengue patients being refused treatment in Delhi’s private hospitals, it is rarely discussed in the ongoing media debate on the subject. A new collection of researched essays edited by public health scholar Imrana...

-Business Standard Plans to enhance buffer stock to 500,000 tonnes; Gujarat exempts importers from stock limit Even as retail prices of pulses continued to exceed Rs 200 a kg in some cities, the Centre stepped up its countrywide crackdown on hoarders and black marketers. The central government claims to have seized around 50,000 tonnes of pulses so far from 10 states, about 15,000 tonnes in the last few days alone. Officials say the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Over 60% of houses in mid-size cities such as Moradabad, Gorakhpur, Kolhapur, Bilaspur and Kharagpur with less than one million population discharge waste water to the open drains, indicating how the government has a mammoth task in achieving complete sanitation even in urban areas. Nearly one-fourth of 416 such non-metropolitan cities have less than 20% households that have waste water outlets connected to the closed drainage...

-The Hindu In the run-up to the U.N. climate summit in Paris in December, Indian environmental NGO, Centre for Science and Environment (CSE), released a report which came down heavily on the U.S. — the second largest emitter of CO2 globally — for not doing enough about climate change, while preaching to other countries, including India, to “act.” In its report ‘Captain America U.S. climate goals: a reckoning,’ the CSE concluded that...

-The Times of India KOLKATA: If things go according to plans, underprivileged kids from over 68 countries will converge in the city to play football in 2016. The world cup soccer tournament for underprivileged kids, organized by the Scotland based foundation called Homeless World Cup, has tied up with the Nagpur based slum soccer, a national initiative that has been working to use football as a platform to better the lives...