India will take at least 17 more years before it can reach the World Health Organization's ( WHO) recommended norm of one doctor per 1,000 people. The Planning Commission's high-level expert group (HLEG) on universal health coverage (UHC) - headed by Dr K Srinath Reddy - has predicted the availability of one allopathic doctor per 1,000 people by 2028. It has suggested setting up 187 medical colleges in 17 high focus...
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Plan panel's new poverty line definition puts India in a spot
-The Business Standard After generating much controversy back home on the Planning Commission's “unrealistic definition” of poverty line, India had to field some tough queries in Washington over the matter. Chief Economic Advisor Kaushik Basu said the government was looking at various parameters of poverty estimates to provide better coverage to the vulnerable section through a proposed food law. "...now we are going to go into a new food security programme, where we...
More »Bihar faces acute dearth of docs by Nishant Sinha
-The Times of India Bihar is facing an acute shortage of doctors. Against a requirement of 15,000 doctors under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), only 4,500 doctors are in position. The problem has been compounded as against the retirement, deaths and migration to other places of 4,500 doctors of Bihar Health Services in the last 20 years, less than 1,000 doctors have been recruited during this period. The state government...
More »Why We Oppose Biotechnology Regulation Bill by Bharat Dogra
The Union Government has prepared the Biotechnology Regulatory Authority of India Bill, 2001 (BRAI in brief) for the regulation of the biotechnology sector in India. While the need for strong and careful regulation certainly exists keeping in view the serious threats posed to health and environment by the genetically modified (GM) crops, the BRAI can actually increase this threat by paving the way for the rapid spread of GM crops...
More »NREGA widens gaps between states by Subhomoy Bhattacharjee
Five years into the implementation of the right to work programme, the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (NREGA) has the potential to create even sharper division between states than what existed before it was launched. This is becoming increasingly clear through reports like the second report of the National Consortium of Civil Society Organisations on NREGA, released last week in Delhi by rural development minister Jairam Ramesh. It is...
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