-The New Indian Express HYDERABAD: A recently published study on the causes of 1,325 suicide cases reported at the 1,000-bed Mahatma Gandhi Memorial Hospital in Warangal over a span of six years (2010-15) raises many questions as 519 cases (58.3 per cent of total) were due to consumption of pesticide and another 174 cases (17.4 per cent), were due to consumption of herbicides and fungicides. The study titled “Trends and determinants of...

-The Hindu Business Line Better healthcare infrastructure, well-trained professionals, informed citizens and nutritious food score over index-induced competition The NITI Aayog’s report, Healthy States, Progressive India, made public earlier this month tells us much of what we already know: that overall, Kerala has the best set of indicators comparable with the developed world and Uttar Pradesh, the worst. That the BIMARU States are at the bottom of the pile along with Odisha....

-The Hindu Business Line New Delhi: The government, which has very little to show so far as achievement on its ambitious plan of doubling farmers’ income by 2022, is organising a two-day brainstorming meet of various stake-holders, including farmers and farmer bodies. The national conference, scheduled from Monday, would be attended by PRIme Minister Narendra Modi, apart from his cabinet colleagues and top government officials. According to SK Pattanayak, Union Agriculture Secretary, the...

-The Hindu Inducting Licentiate Medical Practitioners may be the solution to the chronic shortage of doctors in rural areas Nearly 600 million people in India, mostly in the rural areas, have little or no access to health care. A widespread disregard for norms, a perpetual failure to reach targets, and an air of utter helplessness are what mark the state of rural health care today. One can add to this another...

-Outlook A tax holiday is expected to push more farmers to turn entrepreneurial The Budget’s announcement of a five-year tax holiday for Farmer Producer Organisations (FPOs) with a turnover of up to Rs 100 crore came as a relief to the thousands of farmers who are members of around 4,000 such companies in the country.  In December 2017, a sizeable number of farmers gathered at a national conference org­anised in Pune were...