-The Hindu An evaluation of the Rashtriya Swasthya Bima Yojana (RSBY) has concluded that the government-financed health insurance scheme had little or no impact on medical impoverishment in India. In fact, the study found that despite high enrolment in RSBY, catastrophic health expenditures (when medical expenses push a family into poverty), hospitalisation expenditure and the percentage of total household outgo on out-of-pocket (OOP) expenses — medicines and other consumables that are not...

The Times of India NEW DELHI: Even as Greenpeace India faces heat from the home ministry over FCRA issues, the environment ministry has ensured it remains in the government's directory of environmental NGOs. The directory, comprising around 2,300 environmental NGOs including Greenpeace, was released by environment and forest minister Prakash Javadekar on Tuesday. The directory was released ahead of the government's plan to bring out performance-based rating of NGOs working in the field...

-The Indian Express Concerns over data security and privacy in the programme must be addressed The former chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI), Nandan Nilekani, wrote in these columns about ‘Why Supreme Court judgment on Aadhaar calls for an appeal’ (September 15). The need for a national identification card/ platform was first mooted in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government, and Aadhaar was the UPA’s attempt at realising that vision. Aadhaar...

-The Times of India NEW DELHI: The overall average percentage of pending cases under Protection of Children from Sexual Offences Act (POCSO) in children's courts in Delhi between April 2013 and March 2014 was 85% with the west district having the highest pendency of about 93%, reports Ambika Pandit. In a shocking finding, the average pendency in Delhi's children's courts during the financial year 2013-14 of cases registered under Protection Of Children...

-Huffington Post The heartbreaking story of the parents who jumped to their death in Delhi following the death of their 7-year-old son who succumbed to dengue after being turned away from two major city hospitals has shaken the public health establishment. Union health minister JP Nadda has ordered an enquiry into the incident. Just last month, a man was made to wait for his infant son's dead body because he couldn't pay...