-Outlook The issue of FDI in retail is expected to generate a storm in the Winter Session of Parliament beginning next week, with the Left parties today announcing their decision to move motions entailing voting to oppose the government's proposal. At a time when BJP and several other parties have also opposed FDI in retail, the Left leaders said they have appealed to all parties to support the motions in both Houses...

-Agence-France Presse Rural Development Minister Jairam Ramesh has said that the country's public health system had "collapsed" in a blunt assessment of his government's failure to extend a social safety net for the poor. Mr Ramesh, known as a maverick with often outspoken views, stressed that 70 per cent of spending on health was out of people's own pockets, making it the single most important reason for indebtedness in rural areas. "We all...

-Frontline There are no effective vaccines against Japanese encephalitis, but its spread can be controlled in India through vector management.  JAPANESE ENCEPHALITIS, or JE, has become endemic in many parts of the country, occurring repeatedly in epidemic form in many of them—for instance, in parts of Gorakhpur in northern Uttar Pradesh. One can expect JE-type epidemics year after year in States where prolonged drought-like conditions are followed by heavy monsoons. This leads to...

-Mainstream Weekly Dr Binayak Sen, an internationally renowned medical practitioner and social activist (a leading figure in the People’s Union for Civil Liberties), was incarcerated in Chhattisgarh and held in detention in Raipur having been branded as a Maoist for his activities in defence of poor tribals in the State. He is now out on bail. The following is the text of the Arvind Narayan Das Memorial Lecture he delivered in...

-The Hindustan Times Blood pressure and diabetes will be included for the first time in the National Family Health Survey-4, which covers 17,000 villages and urban units. The project began in May 2012 and the results are expected next year. This year the survey will be conducted digitally, so data will be out within a year, instead of the usual three years. The 15,000 interviewers and 3,000 senior-level officers will check the...