-The Times of India All antibiotics, TB drugs and other habit-forming medicines may soon come with a label warning users about the dangers of taking them without medical advice. Recommending this to the health ministry as a way to address the problem of drug resistance, a task force has also suggested creating a new category, H1, for these drugs by amending the Drugs and Cosmetics Rules, 1945. Health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad...

-The Hindu The delivery percentage has gone up from 7. 8 to 27. 2 Chennai: The number of deliveries taking place in primary health centres, the bottom of the public health services tier, has climbing steadily over the years in Tamil Nadu. From a mere 7.8 per cent in 2004-2005, the 1,614 PHCs in the State now cater to 27.2 per cent of all deliveries. Clearly, the PHCs are attracting patients from...

-The Hindustan Times Children represent not only India’s future, but are also integral to securing India’s present. Yet, development indicators continue to show slow progress towards securing their welfare and delivering their basic rights. The very survival of over a million newborns in the country every year continues to be at risk. Prospects for girls in particular are getting grimmer, with successive Census figures revealing a declining sex ratio. About 44%...

-The Indian Express At a time when targeted therapies work like magic bullets killing cancer cells and sparing normal ones, only 15-20 per cent child victims of the disease are treated in India due to lack of diagnosis and access to treatment. With cancer affecting approximately 60,000 children in the country annually, the Lancet Oncology series released Tuesday is a wake-up call to the government to deal with the challenge of...

-Down to Earth Budget to start process of reforming Central rural schemes, 45 years after first demand India’s rural development programmes are in for an overhaul. After the approval of the 12th Plan by the National Development Council (NDC) on December 27, 2012, the government has started restructuring of the behemoth called Centrally sponsored schemes (CSSs). In the Plan (2012-17) the Centre has committed Rs 541,276 crore for CSSs covering rural development,...