With the inability to closely follow-up on women during their pregnancy period impairing its ability to bring down maternal mortality rate, the State government has rolled up its sleeves to address the problem. The solution, here too, seems to lie in technology. The Directorate of Public Health has commissioned the use of the Pregnancy Infant COHORT Monitoring Evaluation (PICME) software for all staff members, primarily in all Primary Health Centres (PHC),...

Nitish calls for balanced view on proposed plant in Chainpur Agitators allege misinformation on perceived hazardous fallouts of proposed plant “17.8 acres of land acquired to set up the factory is cultivable, fertile” Taking note of the mounting public uproar against the proposed asbestos factory at Bishnupur-Chainpur village in Muzaffarpur district, Bihar Chief Minister Nitish Kumar on Monday said “there was no ban on setting up asbestos factories in India.” Mr. Kumar, however, said...

As government, corporates seek to engage with NGOs, they gain new significance Brave NGO World?     * The Planning Commission is courting NGOs for policy inputs, views on how to make plans work     * NGOs and local activism forced govt to stall Vedanta, Posco plans     * NGO opposition to snacks being served in schools changed plans to scrap hot meals     * NGO have made the government rethink the Polavaram dam project    ...

NRHM needs to revitalise systems, monitor their functional performance and investigate their impact on the indices of health. The National Rural Health Mission (NRHM) was launched in 2005 to bring about a dramatic improvement in the health system and health status of people in rural India. It seeks to provide universal access to health care, which is affordable, equitable, and of good quality. It aims at making architectural corrections to basic...

The Centre is expected to announce a new pharma policy in the next few months. The ministry of chemicals and fertilisers has discussed with concerned stakeholders and will seek further inputs on the matter before placing the draft note to a group of ministers (GoM) for final touches, chemicals and fertilisers minister MK Azhagiri said on Wednesday. Hinting this at a conference on ‘Intellectual Property Rights: Challenges and way forward for...