What was our immediate response to further decline in the child sex ratio in India? Within days of the provisional 2011 Census results (March-April 2011), the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare reconstituted the Central Supervisory Board for the Pre-conception and Pre-Natal Diagnostic Techniques (Prohibition of Sex selection) Act 1994 , which had not met for 3 years, and on November 30, 2011 the Ministry of Women and Child Development...
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Whose Land? Evictions in West Bengal by Malini Bhattacharya
In the initial months of governance by the Trinamool Congress in West Bengal, attempts appear to have been made to begin subverting the positive results of the land reform programme of the Left Front. What is happening appears to be the inevitable outcome of political rivalry, the hegemonic rule of one party giving place to another, with the citadel of power changing its colour, making the “red” one “green”. But...
More »WHO meet adopts mental health resolution by Aarti Dhar
The World Health Organisation (WHO) has adopted a resolution that focuses on the global burden of mental disorders and the need for a comprehensive, coordinated response from health and social sectors at the country level. United States of America and Switzerland supported the resolution moved by India at the just-concluded 130{+t}{+h}executive board meeting of the WHO. This marks the first time in over a decade that the WHO has, at its highest...
More »Soon, ban on blood tests to detect TB by Kounteya Sinha
India will soon ban blood tests to detect tuberculosis (TB) that are widely available across the country. An expert group set up by the Drug Controller General of India has found that blood tests are mostly inaccurate for TB detection. It has recommended to the Union health ministry to immediately ban them. A ministry official said "The DCGI had set up an eight-member committee to look at whether a proposal by the...
More »Big Business Weds Big Media
-Economic and Political Weekly The Reliance/Network18 deal should make us wake up to the impending threat to media plurality. Few are discussing it. India has just seen one of the biggest media deals, where the country’s leading industrial and business giant has bought into the largest network of news and current affairs TV channels. Yet, the fact that this could mark the beginning of a trend leading to private media being controlled...
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