-The Economic Times UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi would launch a new scheme on Wednesday to improve child healthcare under the National Rural Health Mission, under which every child younger than six years would be screened for 30 select deficiencies and disorders. To be kicked off at Palghar, a tribal block in Maharashtra's Thane district, the scheme envisages issuing a follow-up or treatment guidance to children, depending on their symptoms and health status....

-The Hindu It has been insisting that the audit of KG-DWN-98/3 block not be made public Emboldened by the stagnation in the arbitration proceedings, the Mukesh Ambani-owned Reliance Industries Limited (RIL) has once again stalled the audit of KG-DWN-98/3 block by Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG) by refusing to furnish records, financial accounts and SAP access for the KG D6 block for the 2008-12 period on various grounds. It is learnt that RIL...

-The Hindu While India celebrates its near victory over polio, another dreaded disease, leprosy, that was overpowered in 2005 continues to haunt the government. Those affected by the disease continue to face social stigma and discrimination. In addition to the 12,305 child cases detected during the past year, 16 States and Union Territories have also shown an increase in the number of cases. Though in 2005 leprosy was eliminated (having less than 1...

-Economic and Political Weekly A cost-benefi t analysis by the National Institute of Public Finance and Policy of the benefits from Aadhaar integration with seven schemes throws up huge benefi ts that are based almost entirely on unrealistic assumptions. Further, the report does not take into account alternative technologies that could achieve the same or similar savings, possibly at lower cost. Reetika Khera (reetika.khera@gmail.com) is at the Institute of Economic Growth on...

-The Economic Times Pharmaceutical multinationals have begun using the Right to Information law to launch pre-emptive legal action against local generic players to protect the market of patented drugs and delay the entry of low cost generic medicines in the 60,000-crore domestic drug market. MNCs are using such information to sue generic firms even at a stage when their marketing approval is still pending or during the few months' window between the...