-The Hindu Chennai: Completely unprepared for disasters: the hospitals in Chennai — private as well as government — were particularly vulnerable, improvising solutions as the situation developed. As water levels rose, Chennai saw every single system associated with modern life abysmally fail —houses collapsed, roads caved in, communication networks went down, sewage pipelines were wrecked, and carcasses floated on roads. Patients in government and private hospitals across the city took a beating. Completely...

-IANS Tamil Nadu to get 14 stations; stations to be set up during current five-year plan. The central government on Wednesday said it will set up 100 more flood forecasting stations across the country. “The Central Water Commission (CWC) under the Ministry of Water Resources, River Development and Ganga Rejuvenation will set up 40 flood forecasting stations,” the ministry said in a statement. While Tamil Nadu will get 14 stations, three stations will be...

-Down to Earth While northeastern states are the most hit, Andaman & Nicobar Islands gained maximum forests India may have lost 2,511 sq km of prime forests, says the latest Forest Survey of India (FSI) report released on Friday, December 4. Prime forests are classified as very dense and mid-dense with canopy densities of at least 70 per cent and 40 per cent respectively. On the other hand, the report stated that India has...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Public health activists have asked the Union health ministry to reject a demand from an association of Indian doctors to exempt hospitals and clinics with accreditation from proposed rules to regulate the costs of services charged to patients. The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA, or People's Health Movement) has opposed a demand from the Indian Medical Association to the health ministry seeking exemption for accredited hospitals from the Clinical...

-Outlook Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) today said 93 per cent of adults in India voluntarily possess Aadhaar number as per a recent finding. "In a recent update, it is found that 93 per cent of the adult residents in India voluntarily possess Unique Identity – Aadhaar," UIDAI said in a press statement. In UIDAI assigned states/UTs, Aadhaar saturation among adult population is 98 per cent while in Registrar General of India...