So we had a Gandhian morphed into an advocate of Sindoor and Shivaji, who led a crowd that raised a slogan created in Bengal, with some desh bhakti songs thrown in. This was India’s modern revolution? Anna Hazare is a good man. After taking part in the spectacle at Jantar Mantar for three days I have concluded that he is a good man who obviously believes in the glory of...

The battle against poverty and inequity can be won only if governments focus on the welfare of adolescents, says a UNICEF report. FINALLY, it has been recognised that adolescents constitute a very critical category in the overall battle against poverty and inequity. It is for this reason that the United Nations Children's Fund's (UNICEF) flagship report, “The State of the World's Children 2011”, focusses exclusively on adolescents and cautions against neglecting...

Number of centres to be frozen There are nearly 2,300 PHCs in the State Freezing the number will help improve the PHCs Ten of the 30 districts in the State have very poor healthcare services while an equal number of districts have good facilities. Given the need to streamline the system, the State Government has decided to freeze the number of Primary Health Centres (PHCs) and utilise the available funds for improving the...

Policy aims at creation of system to maximise returns on investments in health research National Health Research Management Forum to have representation from all stakeholders To overcome the weaknesses of the publicly funded health structures that restricted research in priority health areas, the Union Health and Family Planning Ministry has finalised the National Health Research Policy. It would maximise the returns on investments in health research through creation of a health research...

“National organisations of health research should come together to provide effective stewardship” Proportion of published papers increased from 0·4 % in 1988 to 1·8 % in 2008 Only 1/4 public health research reports rated as being of adequate quality Expressing concern over the scarcity of research on the routine health-information system in both reports and published papers, which is crucial to track the response of the health system to the health needs of...