-The Telegraph Undergraduate medical students across India may need to spend more time in rural areas under a proposal being examined by the Medical Council of India that may extend the duration of the five- and-a-half-year MBBS course. The Medical Council of India (MCI) in consultation with the Union health ministry is examining the proposal to add several months to the current three-month rural training which is mandatory during MBBS internship, said...

Health activists say new policy may not address the weaknesses in ongoing routine immunisation programmes and would flood poor countries with new vaccines When the global health leaders meet in Geneva from May 21 to 26 for the World Health Organization's 65th General Assembly, introducing new vaccines in the low- and middle-income countries would be high on their agenda. A “global draft vaccine action plan”, available on WHO's website, details the implementation...

This is for you, newly-weds. If you delay that little parcel of joy by over two years, another parcel is yours. A crisp parcel of notes. According to a scheme to be launched under the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), the government will reward newly-weds with a cash prize of Rs 500 if they don’t have children in the first two years of their marriage. That’s not all. If they want, a couple can...

A healthcare model relying mainly on people from within the community to provide care is reaping success One of India’s most backward districts and Maharashtra’s worst ranked in human development indicators, Gadchiroli, today finds itself at the forefront of a healthcare revolution that can potentially save millions of infant lives and help India rapidly reduce her abysmal infant mortality rate (IMR). Under the aegis of the National Rural Health Mission (NRHM), India...

-Live Mint At a time when India plans a multi-pronged attack on malnutrition in 200 high-burden districts, it will pay to examine the cracks in state institutions that have led to past failures and can still derail well-intentioned plans. Melghat, a tribal corner in the northeastern fringes of India’s richest state—Maharashtra—is an apt example of almost everything that has gone wrong in India’s response to malnutrition and child deaths. Every 14th child dies...