-The Times of India blog With the approaching winter the air quality in many Indian cities, especially in Delhi, becomes a public health hazard. Something so fundamental as breathing easy can no longer be taken for granted. It’s a wake-up call worthy of a civic revolution. For decades now those who could afford it (very much including this writer), have seceded from public services. The Indian elite send their children to expensive...

-The Pioneer Ranchi: The State Government, working hard to introduce centralised kitchens to cook nutritious Mid-Day Meals (MDM) for school children, has found eggs not so palatable. ISKCON and Akshay Petra, the two premier organisations, which came forward to run the mega kitchens in different parts of the State, have flagged their reservations about cooking eggs in their kitchens. Confirming the development, Sanjay Tike, looking after MDM related activities of ISKCON in the...

-The Times of India Malnutrition kills more Indians than any specific disease. That’s hardly surprising since a weakened body is more prone to infections and responds less to medicine or treatment than a well-fed, healthy one. Widespread malnutrition has been termed a national shame and a top priority. Yet, the debate in governments is mostly about whether or not to give packaged food and whether deficiencies of vitamins and minerals should be...

-National Herald With a GHI of 31.4, India is at the high end of the “serious” category and this highlights the need for an urgent focus on interventions towards reducing malnutrition in the country The release of the Global Hunger Index (GHI) has once again brought the poor state of nutrition in India onto the spotlight. Although there are improvements in India’s hunger and nutrition indicators, on the whole its rank has...

-Down to Earth Why did we grant Pfizer's claim on a pneumonia vaccine which has been rejected elsewhere? In august, the medical and public health fraternity was stunned when India’s Patent Office granted US pharma giant Pfizer’s claim on its vaccine against pneumonia, the pneumococcal conjugate vaccine (PCV), marketed as Prevnar13. For a country that has stricter patentability criteria than most others, India’s decision was baffling because Pfizer’s patent has been rejected...