-The Telegraph The Union health minister had posted decision on Facebook during a similar outbreak five years ago Two decisions announced by Union health minister Harsh Vardhan this week to help encephalitis-hit Muzaffarpur are identical to promises he had posted on Facebook during a similar outbreak five years ago. The health ministry said on Monday that Harsh Vardhan had instructed that a 100-bed paediatric intensive care unit be set up at the Sri...

-The Pioneer New Delhi: Concerned about the water crisis and drought conditions, Prime Minister Narendra Modi wrote to Chief Ministers of all States advising them to conserve rainwater during the forthcoming monsoon. The PM had earlier written a personal letter to 'Gram Pradhans'(village chiefs) urging them to conserve rainwater.  The issue of drought conditions and water scarcity was discussed at the highest level at the NITI Aayog's governing council meeting last week....

-The Indian Express More than half the villages where the state Groundwater Survey and Development Agency’s summer survey found a depletion of over 3 metres from the five-year average are in Marathwada — 1,467 villages. Beed (Maharastra), Mumbai: Twice over the last six months, residents of Chaklamba village in Beed district’s Georai taluka have gone on a relay hunger strike in 43-degree temperatures, spending scorching afternoons in the shade of a...

-The Hindu Deplores public health infrastructure in the country The National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) on Thursday issued notices to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry (MoHFW), and all States and Union Territories, over what it termed was the “deplorable public health infrastructure in the country”, an NHRC statement said. The NHRC took suo motu cognisance of several media reports on recent deaths across the country due to “deficiencies and inadequacies in...

-The Hindu The new GDP series has some methodological and sampling problems Former Chief Economic Adviser Arvind Subramanian recently claimed in a paper that India’s GDP growth from 2011-12 to 2016-17 was likely to have been overestimated. The Prime Minister’s Economic Advisory Council has rejected this claim, stating that his paper would “not stand the scrutiny of academic or policy research standards”. In a conversation moderated by T.C.A. Sharad Raghavan, Pronab Sen...