-Down to Earth Draft national health policy which proposes making health a fundamental right also envisages increased role of community in planning and implementing health services The Union health ministry has released the draft of the new health policy, which proposes a National Health Right Act. If implemented, the law may prove to be a milestone for health services in the country. The ministry has given the public time till February 28 to...

-Economic and Political Weekly The key to improving the quality of healthcare services in India and reducing costs at the same time can be found by enacting legislation which lays down minimum standards of patient care. In the absence of such standards and the reluctance of health insurance companies to standardise either price or quality, healthcare services continue to be expensive and of doubtful quality. Developing standards of patient care by...

-The Hindu When a law is enacted after considerable debate and consultation, it will be wise to study the experience of its implementation for some time before it is amended, in order to address perceived difficulties. Any such amendment within the first year of its entry into force, especially one pushed through as an ordinance, will be inevitably perceived as hasty, even if on the positive side it is meant...

-The Indian Express Before granting assent to the ordinance cleared by the Union Cabinet on Monday, amending the Right to Fair Compensation and Transparency in the Land Acquisition, Rehabilitation and Resettlement Act, 2013, President Pranab Mukherjee asked the NDA government to explain the urgency behind the ordinance. Article 123 empowers the President to promulgate an ordinance when the Parliament is not in session, but he has to be certain that there are...

-Business Standard The National Democratic Alliance (NDA) government's land ordinance, approved by the President on Wednesday, has made several amendments to the original law rather quietly. Changes in the retrospective clause of the Bill are important but did not attract enough attention when the ordinance was approved by the Cabinet. In the original 2013 law, if compensation had not been paid for over five years to landowners or the land had not been...