-The Hindu By opting for a U.S.-style medical care model, India is endangering its universal health coverage goal, and paving the way for a corporatised, for-profit system As India continues to debate how best to implement universal health coverage, two recent and seemingly unrelated news items need to be analysed carefully. The first one pertains to a report released earlier this year by the National Research Council and the Institute of Medicine in...

-The Hindu Unless the government regulates the growth of the private sector and makes it accountable, the worn-down public health infrastructure cannot be revitalised The absence of a well thought out policy framework for strengthening the health system is the most important issue facing the health sector in India. In the government, there is no clarity on what the nation’s health system should be 10 years hence. Should it be a public...

-The Guardian The media spotlight is on the role of smallholder farmers in poverty reduction and food security, but what they need is action on land rights and support to stand up to powerful partners With the launch of the Enough food for everyone If campaign, global food security is once again high on the public agenda. The UK campaign hopes to harness public support leading up to the meeting of the...

-The Hindu ‘In-patients will have to pay up if private agencies are allowed to use diagnostic centres to serve external customers’ The Chhattisgarh government’s move to outsource diagnostic services in public health facilities has evoked a sharp reaction from health activists, who fear that it will destroy laboratory services. The government has issued a request for proposals for private partnership in radiology and laboratory services in 379 public health facilities. Three categories of...

-DNA Many have forgotten the bad news that was delivered about a year back when three reports – the international PISA report, the Wipro-EI Quality Education Study and ASER 2011 – painted a sad picture of the learning scenario in India. The first report ranked our Class 10 children 73rd in the world out of 74 countries. The second said that students in our top private schools were learning more poorly...