-The Times of India The transfer of the chairman of the National Pharmceutical Pricing Authority, Bhupendra Singh, who had capped the price of stents and knee implants and exposed the huge margins being charged by corporate hospitals has evoked howls of protest from public health activists. RSS-affiliate Swadeshi Jagran Manch too has taken exception to the move, tweeting sarcastically about the “reward” given to a bureaucrat for doing a good job. The All...

-Outlook “BMS decided to boycott ILC due to the centre’s anti-labour policies," RSS trade union President said. The Centre has indefinitely postponed the Indian Labour Conference to be inaugurated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi after RSS trade union BMS threatened to boycott it over the Union budget that was “unsympathetic to labour and workers”. At the 47th ILC scheduled to be held on February 26 and 27, trade unions and employers were...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: Sangh parivar affiliates Swadeshi Jagran Manch and Bharatiya Kisan Sangh have urged the government to address joblessness and agrarian distress in the budget, sounding an alert before the 2019 general election campaign. The Manch, the Sangh's economic wing, has suggested the government shift focus and provide incentives to indigenous small-scale industries to generate more jobs. Farmer arm Bharatiya Kisan Sangh has advocated measures to make agricultural remunerative and demanded...

-Hindustan Times Swadeshi Jagran Manch says programme to distribute dietary supplement packets to fight malnourishment benefits private players New Delhi: RSS’s offshoot Swadeshi Jagran Manch (SJM) has urged the government to not rely on dietary supplement packets to help malnourished children since it will benefit large corporations. The SJM said the programme to begin ready-to-use therapeutic foods (RUTF) begun in BJP-ruled Rajasthan and Maharashtra has proved to be an “expensive and unsustainable” exercise. More...

-The Indian Express In 2015, the BJP government of Chhattisgarh, represented by health minister Ajay Chandrakar, signed an MoU with PHFI to upgrade specialist doctors in Naxal-hit Bastar. SINCE last week, the top public health NGO Public Health Foundation of India (PHFI) has been in the crosshairs of the NDA government, barred from accepting foreign funds. But not very long ago, it was the preferred partner of not just the UPA...