-Livemint NHAM aims to provide all citizens with free drugs and diagnostic treatment, as well as insurance cover to treat serious ailments New Delhi: India's universal health plan that aims to offer guaranteed benefits to a sixth of the world's population will cost an estimated Rs1.6 trillion ($26 billion) over the next four years, a senior health ministry official said. Under the National Health Assurance Mission (NHAM), Prime Minister Narendra Modi's government...

-The Third Pole Cities and villages in India will soon run out of potable water if current trends continue, warns senior water official India's groundwater tables are plunging at an alarming rate with reserves in some states dwindling to critical levels, according to the latest report from the Central Ground Water Board (CGWB) - the apex body under the Ministry of Water Resources. Over 16% of the country's groundwater resources are ‘over-exploited' -...

Documents availed through RTI reveals that the Rural Development minister Shri Nitin Gadkari has ordered to bring drastic changes in the schedule of the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which includes changing the labour to material ratio and restricting the implementation of MGNREGA in 1/3rd of backward blocks in India (please click here to access a note on labour-material ratio prepared by People's Action for Employment Guarantee-PAEG). The MoRD has notified the...

-The Hindu Business Line Ahmedabad: As nearly 40,000 citizens signed a petition asking tea companies to clean up chai, The Wagh Bakri Group, India's third largest tea packager, on Thursday said it would support Greenpeace's attempts to eliminate pesticides from tea cultivation in the country. Wagh Bakri has engaged with Greenpeace India whose report "Trouble Brewing" and highlighted pesticide residue in tea samples recently. Hindustan Unilever Ltd and Girnar Tea have already announced...

-The Indian Express For a government that won office on the plank of fighting corruption and promising ‘‘achhe din'' to citizens disgruntled by poor service delivery, one would have thought putting in place an effective anti-corruption and grievance redressal framework would be a top priority. However, after 100 days of being in power, the Modi sarkar's report card on transparency and accountability disappoints. It is well established that openness in government functioning...