Even as the finance minister recently stepped in to issue an advisory to curtail unnecessary expenditure, it is learnt that the finance ministry has already used up more than 80 per cent or four-fifth of its funds allocated for foreign travel in the first two quarters itself. According to senior government officials, Rs 3.3 crore was allocated to the ministry in the Budget this year for foreign travel with an...

The bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) India is negotiating with Japan and the European Union (EU) can lead to a sharp rise in the cost of medicines, a network of civil society groups has warned. The FTAs are discussed outside the parameters of equitable international trade endorsed by the World Trade Organisation (WTO). Through them, developed countries often impose higher levels of intellectual property protection for medicines than those mandated...

KEY TRENDS   • Suicide by self-employed persons in agriculture as a percentage of total suicides at the national level stood at 15.6 percent in 1996, 16.3 percent in 2002, 14.4 percent in 2006, 13.7 percent in 2009, 11.9 percent in 2010, 10.3 percent in 2011, 11.4 percent in 2012 and 8.73 percent in 2013. Suicides committed in the farming sector (by farmers plus agricultural labourers) as a proportion of total suicides in India was 9.4 percent in...

KEY TRENDS    • The 2019 India TB report says that the country accounted for a quarter of the global tuberculosis (TB) burden with an estimated 27 lakh cases in 2018. In 2018, the country was able to achieve a total notification of 21.5 lakh TB cases, of which 25 percent was from private sector. Majority of the TB burden is among the working age group. Nearly 89 percent of TB cases came from the age group 15-69 years....