-Outlook Amid furore over FDI in multi-brand retail, the politicians and farmers in the leading agrarian state of Punjab are speaking in different voices over the issue. While Chief Minister Parkash Singh Badal said the concept may be successful in developed countries like USA, he feared that it may not work in this country. "If the FDI comes, big players will eat into the share of small traders and that will be against...

-The Times of India The Medical Council of India (MCI) has finally cleared introduction of the three-and-a-half-year long medical course. Calling it BSc in Community Health, it will be open to anybody after class 12. Speaking to TOI, MCI board chairman Dr K K Talwar said this special cadre of health workers will be trained mainly in district Hospitals, be placed in sub-centres or primary health centres and will be taught "some...

-The Telegraph A blend of rice bran oil and sesame oil appears to reduce high blood pressure nearly as well as does a common medication, a preliminary study by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) has suggested. The study has found that people with mild or moderately high blood pressure whose households switched to a blend of rice bran oil and sesame oil for two months showed significant improvements in blood...

-Frontline Members of denotified, nomadic and semi-nomadic tribes, treated as criminal tribes by the colonial rulers, have no place to call their own and no land, no rights, and no support from the government.  Emaciated, eyes sunken deep into sockets, skin hanging loose, almost gasping for breath, Indro Devi and Sarvnath, a couple in their eighties, lie on polythene sheets in an 8×10 square-foot tent made of rags, by a stinking nullah...

-The Times of India MUMBAI: Good cholesterol spells bad news for Mumbaikars. A new survey analyzing risk factors for heart diseases among Indians shows that 54% of Mumbaikars over 30 have low levels of good cholesterol, better known as HDL. Since HDL draws out the body's excess fatty cholesterol molecules and ejects them through the liver, Mumbaikars have a reason to worry. But it isn't only Mumbai. The survey found that across...