-The Telegraph   Eighteen babies aged between two days and 11 months died at Bengal’s apex referral hospital for children in 36 hours since Tuesday night, serving Mamata Banerjee a reminder about the gravity of the problems she faces in health care. On an average, five to six children die every day at the 360-bed BC Roy Post-Graduate Institute for Paediatric Sciences, Phoolbagan. The sudden rise in number revived memories of November...

The health ministry has erected bureaucratic hurdles against a bio-pesticide for mosquito control developed by Indian researchers, denying it entry into the public health programme while accepting similar imported products, scientists and entrepreneurs have said. The bio-pesticide was developed at the Vector Control Research Centre (VCRC) in Puducherry during the 1980s. It is a powder or spray formulation containing a bacterium called Bacillus thuringiensis that can kill the larvae of several...

Policies aiming to combat malnutrition are ignoring an entire generation of women whose overall health has a direct bearing on children’s growth, say advocacy groups and researchers Cradling a frail son on her hip and with a plastic bag stuffed with clothes in one hand, Tara Jadam walked into the rehabilitation centre inside the district hospital here to spend the next two weeks. On a hot afternoon, she has walked several miles...

Health authorities in Andhra Pradesh have asked government doctors in the State to prescribe only generic drugs and avoid the practice of writing brand names in the prescription. The move is aimed at helping patients avail themselves of free drugs for a wide range of ailments in government hospitals. It is also expected to bring down, for the government, the cost of procuring the drugs.Prescribing branded drugs is a common practice...

Cash transfers are now suggested by many as a silver bullet for addressing the problems that plague India’s anti-poverty programmes. This article argues instead for evidence-based policy and informed public debate to clarify the place, prospects and problems of cash transfers in India. By drawing on key empirical findings from academic and grey literature across the world an attempt is made to draw attention to three aspects of cash transfers...