-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Narendra Modi government has downsized its first large-scale initiative for women, trimming the plan for a rape crisis centre in every district to one centre per state and Union territory. Union women and child development minister Maneka Gandhi had suggested 660 Nirbhaya Centres - one each in the 640 districts and another 20 in the six metros. Now, there will be just 36, their locations decided by...

-Business Standard The wide disparity between the best healthcare & quackery that much of the population must endure is partly to blame for India's apathy Whether Indians in ancient times discovered algebra and the Pythagoras theorem before "selflessly" passing them on to the Arabs and the Greeks as Science and Technology Minister Harsh Vardhan said last week is for agile historians to ponder. Widely accepted is that Indians in ancient times studied...

-The Hindu The absence of state accountability is at the core of issues facing tribal communities The Report of the High Level Committee on Socio-Economic, Health and Educational Status of Tribal Communities of India, under the chairmanship of sociologist Virginius Xaxa, was circulated last week. The 431-page report details the situation of tribal communities: Scheduled Tribes, de-notified tribes and particularly vulnerable tribal communities. Taking on board the findings and demands of social...

-Reuters   The government has ordered a cut of nearly 20% in its 2014-15 healthcare budget due to fiscal strains, putting at risk key disease control initiatives in a country whose public spending on health is already among the lowest in the world. Two health ministry officials told Reuters on Tuesday that more than 60 billion rupees, or $948 million, has been slashed from their budget allocation of around $5 billion for the...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: India runs the risk of a severe shortage of medicines because of its over dependence on China for sourcing raw material for drugs, national security adviser (NSA) Ajit Doval has warned, TOI has learnt. According to the NSA, India should take immediate concrete steps to create adequate infrastructure to become self-sufficient for manufacturing medicines which are essential in nature. "The national security adviser had highlighted concerns related...