-The Times of India Nagpur: Monocrotophos, one of the pesticides used by majority of the victims, was removed from the list of recommended chemicals by Central Institute of Cotton Research (CICR) much before spraying claimed over 40 lives in the region. The premier research agency of the central government issues advisories related to use of pesticide combinations on the cotton crop. Considering its hazardous nature, monocrotophos-based chemicals were removed from the list....

-Down to Earth Jean Dreze on why he prefers a solidarity society, rather than a welfare state * Are you actually an advocate of the welfare state? Ideally, I would prefer to think in terms of a solidarity society rather than welfare state, for two reasons. First, private non-profit institutions can play a very useful role in the social sector. In many countries, some of the best schools and health centres are run...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Most households covered by government-funded health insurance have to use personal funds to pay for hospitalisation, a study has suggested, iterating concerns about the wisdom of deploying public-funded insurance schemes to seek universal health coverage in India. The study, designed to determine how well government-funded health insurance protects households from health expenditure, has found that 66 per cent of such households who sought healthcare in public hospitals and...

-The Indian Express Union government must address structural issues in agricultural policy, allow states greater autonomy. Farmers from across the country are out on Delhi’s streets agitating just as the deliberations for the 2018 budget are beginning and it’s time to seek solutions to the structural issues that plague the system. The “one-size-fits-all” policy created for the farm sector is self-destructive in design and programmes meant to double farmer incomes are collapsing. The...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: Fortis Memorial Research Institute (Gurgaon) charged the family of a seven-year-old dengue patient almost Rs 16 lakh for 15 days in the ICU, but the girl died while being shifted from Fortis to Rockland Hospital. Union health minister J P Nadda on Monday assured the bereaved family of action in the matter following an uproar on social media sites. Fortis denied any wrongdoing. It said all...