-The Times of India    RTI activist Poonam Solanki, 38, who is also convenor of the BJP human rights cell of Daskroi taluka, was brutally attacked by Popat Solanki, sarpach of Bakrol village and chairman of the local Sewa Sahkari co-operative on Friday. Solanki, who suffered multiple fractures and head injury, went into coma after the attack and was shifted to Ahmedabad Civil Hospital for Treatment. Later, he gained consciousness. A police...

The prevalence is 18 per cent in South India, says UNAIDS report India houses half of Asia's HIV patients and is way ahead of China in disease burden. It also finds a place in the list of 22 countries prioritised for preventing mother to child transmission infection, according to the latest UNAIDS report, drafted jointly with the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) and the World Health Organisation (WHO). About 48 lakh people...

-The Hindu   The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has issued a notice to the Madhya Pradesh Chief Secretary, returnable with a report in six weeks, on allegation that 40 labourers were not traceable after heavy cranes collapsed at an under-construction cement factory in Narsingarh village in Damoh district. The NHRC was acting based on media reports. The reports said that about 300 labourers, mostly from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh, were working at...

The Planning Commission has received a sweeping set of recommendations that proposes free health care and medicines for diverse needs to all Indian citizens, irrespective of economic means. Whether or to what extent the proposals — described as “even bigger” than the UPA’s blockbuster job scheme — will be accepted will depend on the political and executive leadership. If the government throws its weight behind the initiative, it will effectively mean...

The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has posted an advertisement inviting, by December 31, research proposals on long-term effects of methyl isocyanate (MIC) gas on Bhopal’s residents. However, while it is yet to conduct this research 27 years after the Bhopal gas tragedy caused by MIC that left hundreds dead, data shows that the “gas patients” have been routinely used for clinical trials for new drugs at the Bhopal Memorial...