It will develop blueprint to achieve ‘health for all' by 2020 Recognising the importance of defining a comprehensive strategy for universal health coverage, the Planning Commission has set up a high level expert group to develop a blueprint and investment plan for meeting the human resource requirements to achieve ‘health for all' by 2020. The 15-member high level group on universal health coverage, chaired by K. Srinath Reddy, president of the Public...

Sustained improvement in disease control programmes, specially tuberculosis, and perceptible improvement in rural health care are the highlights of the UPA-II's report card in the health sector. In the 'Report to the People' released here today by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the government said, during 2009-10, more than 36,000 village health and sanitation committees were set up, over 1,300 facility-based Rogi Kalyan Samitis were formed and over 53,000 accredited social...

The Union government will go ahead with the proposed Bachelor of Rural Health Care. This assertion came from Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad in response to questions by journalists whether the government would put the proposal on hold in the wake of the arrest of Ketan Desai, president of the Medical Council of India (MCI). The Minister said it was a government initiative where public sector hospitals...

Ranchi: It was a budget aimed at sweetening the bitter price rise pill. From cutting down VAT on diesel, sweets and ice- cream to making foodgrains available at Re 1 per kg for the poor, deputy chief minister Raghubar Das today presented an annual budget which focused on rural development, food security and social welfare. Chanting the “inclusive growth” mantra, Das, the BJP face in the Shibu Soren government, showed...

Morning-after pills should be back on air. And not just private companies but even the Union health ministry should advertise them. This is the view of a four-member expert committee set up by the Drug Technical Advisory Board (DTAB) recently to assess the pros and cons of allowing advertising of emergency pills. The Drug Controller General's office banned advertising of all emergency contraceptives like Unwanted-72 and I-Pill on January 11,...