-Live Mint NAC wants Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna to be absorbed into new policy for universal health coverage  The National Advisory Council (NAC), which sets the policy agenda for the Congress party led United Progressive Alliance (UPA) government, wants the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojna (RSBY) insurance scheme to be absorbed into the new policy for universal health coverage (UHC), taking the latter closer to realization.   This is part of the government’s bid to move...

-Live Mint The deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, in an interview, spoke about the challenges of pushing public health reforms India is likely to finalize a draft Plan document next week to introduce universal health coverage in India. Montek Singh Ahluwalia, deputy chairman of the Planning Commission, spoke in an interview about the challenges of pushing public health reforms with limited resources at hand.  Edited excerpts: * Will the government be able to...

-The Hindu Kudankulam and the surrounding areas remained tense on an incident-free Tuesday, after Monday’s violent happenings. Villages in a radius of 25 km, including Anjugramam, Chettikulam, Sree Renganarayanapuram, Levenchipuram, Viswanathapuram, Kudankulam and Idinthakarai, wore a deserted look after the suspension of Tamil Nadu State Transport Corporation bus services. People confined themselves to their homes as the tense situation continued to prevail in and around Kudankulam. According to official sources, the TNSTC...

-The Hindu The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan on Monday called upon the Union Government to extend free medicine supply scheme, presently operational in a few States like Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, all over the country to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure of common people on health care. Such a scheme would especially benefit the patients deprived of any kind of Treatment due to poverty. In a letter addressed to Union Health & Family Welfare Secretary...

-Live Mint Cipla Ltd won a landmark patent case against Swiss drug maker F Hoffmann-La Roche Ltd in the Delhi high court on Friday over the Indian company’s generic copy of lung cancer drug Tarceva after a four-year court battle. Justice Manmohan Singh observed in his 280-page judgement that it had been scientifically proven that Cipla’s generic version was a polymorph B variant of Roche’s patented drug and that it didn’t actually...