-The Hindu Having nearly 275 million tobacco users, India ranks second globally and very close to China (approximately 301 million users). But unlike China, where nearly all are smokers and nearly 95 per cent smoke manufactured cigarettes, India accounts for more of smokeless tobacco users — 206 million, says a study published today (August 17) in The Lancet . The study analysed the data from the Global Adult Tobacco Survey (GATS) conducted...

-The Guardian Higher disposable incomes, changing consumption patterns and the marketing might of powerful western brands are bringing fast food to India's children The camera pans in. The grins of smiling school children fill the frame. An enthusiastic teacher, played by a famous Bollywood actress, sits in the centre. The scene is a "remote picturesque setting". And all are munching happily on Domino's Pizza. The advert is typical of the marketing bombardment...

Tuberculosis re-emerges as a major threat as new drug-resistant strains develop because of mismanagement of the disease. At the beginning of the year, doctors at Mumbai’s P.D. Hinduja National Hospital and Medical Research Centre reported that they had 12 patients infected with TDR-TB, or totally drug-resistant tuberculosis, a condition in which the TB bacilli is resistant to all first- and second-line drugs used in the conventional treatment of the disease. Panic...

India is all set to unveil a path-breaking test for diabetes that will save both money and blood. The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) is almost ready with a new digital finger-pricking blood sugar machine that will not require repeated use of testing strips. Significantly, it will cost less than Rs 2 per blood sample and require 1,000 times lesser blood than what glucose meters use now. Even better, it...

-The Economic Times It is not malaria or TB that will be the cause of large number of deaths in the world, Cancer is on its way to become one the deadliest diseases in the coming decades, according to a research paper published in medical journal Lancet. The study lead by Dr Freddy Bay of International Agency for Research on Cancer, France,predicts that the number of cancer patients in the world is...