-PTI Over 10 crore people in the country are getting water contaminated with excess fluoride, the Lok Sabha was informed today. To deal with the problem, the central government has released Rs 800 crore so that community water purification plants could be set up, Minister for Drinking Water and Sanitation Narendra Singh Tomar said during Question Hour. About 10.06 crore population living in 12,577 habitations in different states and union territories are getting...

-Hindustan Times Audit report says most food testing labs in country are ill-equipped. The Comptroller and Auditor General (CAG), India’s constitutionally mandated federal auditor, has cited serious lapses in enforcing food-safety norms in the country, which, it said, could be putting public health at risk. A majority of the country’s food-testing laboratories were poorly managed, the report said. It found that 65 of the 72 state-wide food laboratories were not accredited to the...

-Deccan Herald Punjab, the food bowl of the country, is faced with a paradox of plenty. Ever since the launch of the Green Revolution in 1966, Punjab has been producing a record grain surplus year after year. Yet, over the years, it has turned into a graveyard for its farmers. There is hardly a day when reports of farmers committing suicide do not appear in Punjab newspapers. Take a look at the...

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 Hindu According to the latest rules, ‘explicitly informed consent’ from customers has been made compulsory. Following the Airtel India-Aadhaar subsidy fiasco, the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) on Tuesday has tightened the norms for mapping Aadhaar number to a different bank account. According to the latest rules, ‘explicitly informed consent’ from customers has been made compulsory. The National Payments Corporation of India (NPCI) will disable the override feature that UIDAI said was...