The government plans to roll out a nationwide free medicine scheme by November, which will offer quality essential drugs to all the patients in state-run hospitals and treatment centres, a senior health ministry official said. LC Goyal, additional secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, said the scheme would offer 348 essential drugs as well as their combinations to patients. These drugs account for about 28 per cent of...

-Live Mint Latest houselisting data demonstrates a visible growth in the material well-being of the two groups Indians, all of them, across class and caste, traded up over the past decade, a period of rapid and record economic growth—that’s the counter-intuitive message in the latest update to Census 2011. According to the so-called houselisting data released by the census, scheduled castes (SCs) and scheduled tribes (STs) have, like the rest of the country,...

Inflation in India rose above expectations in April, making life difficult for the nation's central bank as it tries to revive an economy facing increased stagflation risks. The Reserve Bank of India last month cut its policy rate for the first time in three years to boost sagging growth. But inflation has remained stubbornly high, raising concerns the economy may be facing a nightmare scenario of slowing growth and rising prices. On...

One would expect a debate such as the current one on poverty estimates to be conducted with a serious exploration of its various facets. However, instead of a comprehensive, fact-driven exploration, the debate has yielded aspersions on the intellectual honesty of academicians. Although given its electoral connotations, one does expect political biases to creep into the debate, the barrage of criticism hurled at the Planning Commission, over its affidavit in...

In a move that could end a face-off within the government on the proposed food security Bill, the food ministry has decided to make everyone, except the so-called creamy layer, eligible for receiving state-subsidized foodgrains. Those who can afford to pay market prices will be kept out of the intended list of beneficiaries through the introduction of the exclusion criteria in the Bill, which will also seek to allocate foodgrains on...