-The Hindu The Betul tragedy shows that the state does not consider emotional or intellectual maturity important in a person who teaches children Picture a small boy facing two adult men. They are furious over something they suspect he has done, so they start hitting him. They feel they have the authority to do so because they are teachers. The boy is absolutely helpless. It hardly matters for this picture whether he...

-The Hindu Centre buoyed by pilot scheme’s success Encouraged by the response to its pilot scheme on home delivery of contraceptives by women health workers, the Centre has decided to extend the programme across the country with immediate effect. The initiative of supplying contraceptives — condoms, oral contraceptive pills (OCP) and emergency contraceptive pills — at home by accredited social health activists (ASHAs) was launched on a pilot basis in 233 districts in...

-The Hindu TV commercial on GlaxoSmithKline’s vaccine against Rota virus makes unsubstantiated claims, says ASCI At a time when the commercial interests of major private Hospitals or pharma giants often take precedence over the health concerns of the common man, a New Delhi doctor has managed to get the Advertising Standards Council of India to stall a television commercial, aired by GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals, hailing the benefits of its vaccine against Rota virus. The...

-Outlook Karimnagar (AP): A debt-ridden weaver allegedly committed suicide in Karimnagar district, police said today. Goli Yadagiri (55), a weaver from Mandepalli urban colony in Sircilla town, 40 kms from here, had borrowed money from private lenders for the marriage of his daughter. However, after failing to clear the debt, he took the extreme step and hanged himself from the ceiling fan in his house last night, police said. A case has been registered...

-The Telegraph A children’s vaccine against a stomach infection has triggered controversy with some doctors claiming there is not enough data to show it is effective in India and accusing a leading drug company of using a misleading advertisement to promote the vaccine. GlaxoSmithKline Pharmaceuticals (GSK) has stopped the advertisement for the vaccine intended to protect children from potentially life-threatening rotavirus infections after the advertising industry’s self-regulating body upheld a doctor’s complaint...