-TheWire.in The noted human rights activist said that the panel had also failed to take any action on his report on the conditions in Assam's detention centres. New Delhi: Citing National Human Rights Commission’s (NHRC) “continued silence” on the issue of “encounter killings targeting minorities in Uttar Pradesh and Haryana” as well as on the report he had authored on the critical question of those declared as foreigners in Assam by...

-The Hindu Business Line The Ayushman Bharat programme must aim to reverse poverty caused by healthcare expenses The state of India’s healthcare system is somewhat dichotomous — the country is a global supplier of life-saving, affordable and good quality generic medicines, yet lakhs of families are driven into poverty because they are forced to spend much of their earnings and savings on medications to treat chronic and life-threatening diseases. The poor, particularly,...

-TheWire.in The government has fixed the insurance reimbursements for 1,354 medical procedures under its massive new scheme. They say they won’t revise this any further. New Delhi: Despite protests from the private health sector, that the government’s reimbursements to them under the massive new health insurance scheme are too low, the government has “frozen” these rates and is unlikely to change them. “The package rates are now frozen,” said health secretary Preeti Sudan. Dinesh...

-The Hindu They matter because they sustain social practices without which human life is neither worthwhile nor indeed possible There is much talk these days about the decline in our institutions. Aren’t they failing to perform, being systematically undermined, even destroyed? On the one hand, people are heard lamenting that our courts are compromised, that our Parliament is dysfunctional, or that our higher education is in a mess. On the other hand,...

-The Indian Express Beginning May 18, close to 3,000 government nurses from across Chhattisgarh went on strike, for better pay. On June 2, 607 nurses were arrested. With the government promising to set up a committee, the protest was called off the next day and the nurses released. Tikeshwari Sahu was among the protesters. * Since when have you been working? Tikeshwari Sahu: This September, I complete five years working as a nurse....