-SabrangIndia.in In Pratapgarh, a village that could be anywhere in the Hindi belt, a young man, Ravi, gets to know that his wife, Seema, is pregnant with a girl child, third time in a row. He wants her to get an abortion because he wants a male child. He forces Seema to accompany him to a doctor who agrees to conduct the abortion though the foetus is past the 20-week deadline...

Although life expectancy at birth for both the sexes has improved over the last quarter of a century, a recent report points out that ‘non-communicable diseases’ (NCDs) now account for a larger proportion of total deaths vis-à-vis ‘communicable, maternal, neonatal and nutritional disease' (CMNNDs). The report entitled India: Health of the Nation’s States - The India State-Level Disease Burden Initiative, which has been prepared after two years of intense collaborative...

-The Indian Express The advertisement industry itself is no stranger to innuendo and double entendre – and it is a blatant hypocrisy to make advertisements for condoms the scapegoat in this issue. India’s reproductive health is the unsuspecting casualty in the recent tussle on the appropriateness of condom advertisements. The advisory issued by the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting on Monday, December 11, directs television channels to restrict the broadcast of condom...

-The Times of India and other agencies WASHINGTON: United States President Donald Trump has promised to bring the cost of prescription drugs in the country "way down" and let other countries pay more for these medicines. If effected, Trump's new policy on prescription drugs, dicussed with his cabinet at the White House on Monday, could have grave implications for India. The US has long had a grouse with India over its patent...

-The Indian Express   Niti Aayog proposal for privatising public hospitals is ill-designed, driven by ideology more than welfare The corporate hospitals have been resting their gaze on public hospitals for long: Land, doctors and patients. Finally, in the Niti Aayog, they have found a sympathetic collaborator. As per media reports, the Aayog is all set to push states to privatise well functioning district hospitals in the Tier 2 and 3...