-The Times of India NEW DELHI: For bringing down prices of medicines for critical diseases like cancer, HIV and diabetes, the government has revised the national list of essential medicines (NLEM) to add 106 more drugs while 70 other drugs, which are not prescribed frequently or where better alternatives are now available in the market, have been taken off the list. This means, the total number of essential medicines, prices of which...

-Press Release from India Resource Center New Delhi: A proposal to tax sugar sweetened beverages like tobacco in India is being welcomed by public health advocates. The proposal to increase sin taxes on aerated drinks is part of the recommendations made by India’s Chief Economic Advisor Arvind Subramanian on the upcoming Goods and Services Tax (GST) bill in the parliament of India. Taxation to reduce consumption of tobacco has been successful when used...

-Livemint.com In 1986, Italian journalist Carlo Petrini was outraged when McDonald’s opened its first outlet in Rome. He saw this as a threat to Italy’s culinary culture. He led a protest against the global industrialization of food, which culminated in the slow food movement. Starting in Rome, the movement is now a worldwide phenomenon. Edited excerpts from an interview at the Indigenous Terra Madre in Shillong: * What are the key achievements...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: When World AIDS Day is observed across the globe on December 1, India will enter the third, and perhaps the most perplexing decade of its HIVAIDS epidemic. The first 29 years were marked with victory as the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) metamorphosed from being the deadliest word in public health to just another chronic disease such as diabetes or hypertension. that can be managed well with medicines....

-The Times of India MUMBAI: What Indians eat and how could be fueling the diabetes epidemic across the country, suggests a new survey that interviewed 4,000 diabetic patients across eight cities. The main culprit could be the Indian craving for rice, fine-flour rotis or upma - all carbohydrate-based foodstuff high on calories but low on much-needed fibre. "Rice accounts for 48% of the daily calorific intake of most Indians,'' said endocrinologist Dr...