-The Hindu Doctors’ objections to prescribing medicines by generic names fly in the face of a recent report on substandard drugs In a surprise move on April 17, Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced that his government will soon make it mandatory for doctors to prescribe medicines by generic names. The decision was to ensure drug prices remain affordable and patients get a wider bouquet of options instead of being forced to...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Indian government is mulling monetary incentives to private doctors who provide correct treatment to patients with tuberculosis and financial and nutritional support to patients under new strategies to eliminate TB as a public health problem by 2025. The Union health ministry's "national strategic plan for tuberculosis elimination 2017-2025" also seeks to enhance investments in diagnostic tools and treatment to help cut the country's new TB cases from...

-PTI Mumbai: Voicing concern over death of 17,000 persons due to malnutrition in tribal areas of Maharashtra in the last one year, the Bombay High Court today asked the state government to take immediate steps to tackle it and submit details of central grants received for tribal welfare. A division bench of Justices V M Kanade and Swapna Joshi was hearing a bunch of PILs regarding malnutrition among children in Melghat region...

-The Telegraph New Delhi: The Centre's regulatory body for traditional medicine has decided to offer a two-year postgraduate diploma course in ayurveda to doctors of modern medicine, drawing criticism from some medical professionals. The course will help doctors with degrees such as MBBS and MD to learn the basic principles of ayurveda, a senior official with the Central Council for Indian Medicine said. "We believe there is interest in ayurveda, mainly from doctors...

-PTI Assuming 80% availability of doctors, it is estimated around 7.67 lakh (allopathic) doctors may be actually available for service There is one doctor for every 893 patients in the country if allopathic doctors and those practising Ayurveda, Unani and Homeopathy streams are considered together, Lok Sabha was informed today. In a written reply, Minister of State for Health Faggan Singh Kulaste said there as 9.59 lakh registered allopathic doctors in the country...