-The Times of India Cancer drugs, being the top focus for research and development, corner the lion's share of medicines launched globally, yet only a handful make it to developing countries like India. Only seven oncology drugs were introduced in India over five years (2010-2014), when nearly 50 breakthrough therapies were rolled out globally. The disparity in availability of oncology therapies becomes even more stark over a 10-year period (2006-2016), with not even...

-The Hindu Business Line Aadhaar does more damage than good in welfare programmes It is widely believed that Aadhaar-Based Biometric Authentication (ABBA) is necessary to improve the delivery of welfare programmes such as the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MNREGA), Public Distribution System (PDS), social security pensions, and so on. This is a misconception. We have been studying these programmes for a decade, focusing mainly on the source of leakages and...

-Scroll.in RTIs filed by Scroll.in show complaints about enrolling agencies demanding bribes and doing fraud enrolments. On Wednesday, the Unique Identification Authority of India said that it had blacklisted the enrolment agency that had inadvertently leaked details of former Indian cricket team captain MS Dhoni’s application to join the Aadhaar programme. The day before, Dhoni’s wife Sakshi had sent a tweet to Information and Technology Minister Ravi Shankar Prasad informing him of...

-Livemint.com Karnataka, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh have started their own versions of Tamil Nadu’s Amma canteens that provide food at heavily subsidized rates New Delhi: The late J. Jayalalithaa’s government in Tamil Nadu had launched Amma Unavagam (Mother’s canteen) with much fanfare in 2013. Meant to provide wholesome food at heavily subsidized rates, the canteens which are run by the government but staffed by women from self-help groups have been a runaway...

-eSocialSciences.org The primary aim of the National Health Policy, 2017, is to inform, clarify, strengthen and prioritize the role of the Government in shaping health systems in all its dimensions -- investments in health, organization of healthcare services, prevention of diseases and promotion of good health through cross sectoral actions, access to technologies, developing human resources, encouraging medical pluralism, building knowledge base, developing better financial protection strategies, strengthening regulation and health...