-The Times of India NEW DELHI: In a dramatic reversal of the trend that existed just three years ago, big corporate hospitals today charge health insurance card holders much less than those paying in cash for the same procedures. Those paying out of their pockets are now billed anywhere between 25% and 60% more than those with cashless health insurance schemes. TOI did a comparative study of the amounts charged from the...

-The Hindu The huge deficit in blood availability outside urban centres must jolt the government into legalising unbanked blood supply Twenty-year-old Putul, living in a village 70 km from a district headquarters town in Chhattisgarh, had been in labour for two days and a night. It was her first pregnancy. In order to hasten labour, the local quack administered several injections that increased her uterine contractions. Forty hours after the onset of...

-The Indian Express In Gorakhpur, small successes in understanding - and conquering - the killer disease of children are undercut by a wily virus and administrative bottlenecks Gorakhpur: On August 18, five-year-old Vishal spent the evening playing with friends in Vanjhai village in Gorakhpur district's Bhathat block. He came home irritable, with a slight fever. His mother and grandmother gave him a little milk and sent him to bed. They were not...

-The Economic Times NEW DELHI: An ailing economy and an emerging destination for medical tourism, India has just made it easier for its bureaucrats and their immediate family members to fly abroad for treatment at the government's expense. The Centre has decided to reimburse the total cost of treatment abroad as well as fund the return airfare for IAS, IPS and IFS officers, changing the 30-year-old rules at a time the government...

-Frontline Riding roughshod over farmers' concerns, the Gujarat government notifies a project to develop the Mandal-Becharaji Special Investment Region, an industrial hub spread over 50,884 hectares, affecting 44 villages. But the villagers see it as a real estate scam and are determined to resist it. GUJARAT may soon have several new townships. The Narendra Modi-led government has proposed to set up 13 special investment regions (SIRs), which are essentially industrial hubs...