-The Economic Times SILIGURI: Low level of price realization and severe shortage of storage space, potato farming is in downturn this sowing season in northern West Bengal. It is one of the highest contributing zones to national potato yield. Sowing for potato is showing a declining trend in north Bengal. “I cannot take chance again after the hardship I had to face with my last year’s crop,” said Jiban Mandal, a veteran...

-Frontline.in The Assembly elections have put under intense scrutiny Narendra Modi’s Gujarat model of development which is touted as worthy of replication throughout the country. Audit reports of the CAG provide ample evidence of it being inefficient, corrupt and not beneficial to the common people. THE standard indicators of development, as is understood in theory and practice, comprise a range of indices, and not necessarily the level of private investment in...

-PTI Mumbai: Doctors in Maharashtra will now have to mention generic names of medicines as against prescribing only a certain brand, giving patients a choice. With a generic prescription, patients can go in for low-cost options for the same medicine. The state government, in a statement yesterday, said as per a decision of the state medical council under clause 1.5 of the Indian Medical Council Regulations, doctors should prescribe drugs with generic names...

-The Hindu Business Line Public procurement at a negotiated price is a better option. Price curbs deter producers and don’t check pharmacy margins The Government’s attempt to keep the prices of essential medicines affordable and curb the extraordinary returns earned by private healthcare providers through price controls has started an inexorable process whose end does not seem in sight. Will these moves eventually be counter-productive? First came the move to extend the scope...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Doctors who receive gifts from pharmaceutical companies are more likely to prescribe expensive versions of medicines and more drugs per patient, a US study released on Wednesday suggested. The study is among the first to quantitatively measure the impacts of such gifts and challenges claims by sections of pharmaceutical industry executives that industry gifts are not intended to influence prescriptions doctors write. Health policy researchers who analysed prescription patterns...