Prime Minister Manmohan Singh pledged Sunday to spend more on health care and education and make it easier for foreign investors to participate in India’s $1.2 trillion economy, one of the fastest growing in the world. At a World Economic Forum meeting in New Delhi, Mr. Singh said that public sector spending on health care would more than double to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product, and education spending would...

EU trade commissioner said it will soon resolve the issue of confiscation of Indian drugs being exported to developing countries. EU Trade commissioner Catherine Ashton said a team of customs officials from the European Commission will be in New Delhi shortly to discuss the issue. “We talked about this issue. Our commitment on pharma, on generics is to find a solution that works for India,” she said after a meeting...

Despite signs of an economic revival gathering pace around the globe, the millions of people laid off during the worst recession in 70 years are unlikely to see relief any time soon as joblessness is still climbing in many of the world's largest economies. Unemployment data typically lags other indicators of economic health as companies hold off adding staff in the early stages of a rebound. The upturns recorded recently in...

Opening more medical colleges is not the solution to India’s chronic shortage of doctors in the rural areas.  India is the largest supplier of foreign medical graduates to the United States and the United Kingdom. Yet, its own rural areas have remained chronically deprived of professional doctors. The historical antecedents of these shortages could be traced to a landmark health policy document, the Bhore Committee Report of 1946. That report...

A UN Habitat publication warns that inequalities and worsening informal settlements (read slums) could lead to widespread violence and chaos in the cities and towns of the world. The newly-released report titled “Planning Sustainable Cities: Global Report on Human Settlements 2009” says that with almost 200,000 new dwellers flooding into the world cities and towns each day, there is an urgent need to check the mushrooming of such settlements. The...