-The Times of India CHENNAI: The DMK has once again landed the UPA government in a spot as the focus now shifts to the family of Union minister of state for information and broadcasting S Jagathrakshakan for their involvement in a company that was awarded a coal block in 2007 despite the fact that it had no track record in the sector. The Jagathrakshakan-owned J R Power Gen Pvt Ltd was barely...

-Frontline Health activists say the health chapter of the Twelfth Plan document exaggerates the role of the private sector in providing health care. The draft chapter on health for the Twelfth Five Year Plan document not only is grossly inadequate in its approach but exaggerates to unrealistic levels the role of the private sector in providing health care. It invokes the concept of universal health care (UHC), but, critics say, it...

-The Times of India It's raining sops for the poor. The government is making treatment of people below the poverty line suffering from mental disorders and diabetes free at government or public super speciality hospitals like AIIMS. Yesterday, TOI had reported the government's plan to gift cell phones to the poor. In the maiden endorsement of India's swelling burden of patients suffering from mental disorders, the ministry has included it under the Rashtriya...

-The Telegraph The Supreme Court has struck down the grace marks of up to 30 per cent given to rurally posted government doctors in admissions to postgraduate medical degree courses in Odisha. Its verdict yesterday set aside an Orissa High Court order that upheld the grace marks — 10 per cent per completed year of rural service up to three years — given in the state, and therefore applies only to Odisha. But...

-The Times of India The government on Thursday launched an anti-ragging website helping students of universities, colleges and professional institutes lodge online complaints against ragging or harassment and seek faster response. The portal (www.antiragging.in) launched by HRD minister Kapil Sibal is also expected to maintain a database of students and will be connected to most universities by year-end. Sibal said, "Lot of young students have lost their lives, many loose their confidence...