-The Telegraph New Delhi: India's regulatory body for medical education, beleaguered by allegations of corruption and performance failures, today announced plans to create a digital register of doctors across the country and track ghost, or fake, faculty in medical colleges. The Medical Council of India (MCI) will update its national register of medical practitioners within six months and use a computer network to monitor in real time the daily attendance patterns of...

-DNA Only 17% rural households take loans from financial institutions | Caste affiliation, gender play a part in getting credit As many as 31% of rural households in India are indebted and a significant number still depend on money-lenders, paying heavy interests, despite various government schemes and a network of rural banking. A parliamentary panel that probed the state of rural, agricultural banking found that a mere 17% rural household had taken...

-The Hindu Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) deal could hit supply of cheap Indian drugs New Delhi: As the next round of Regional Comprehensive Economic Partnership (RCEP) trade talks begin in Vietnam on Monday, humanitarian aid organisation Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) has called for the removal of intellectual property provisions — known as the TRIPS-plus provisions — from the agreement. The talks are scheduled for August 15-19. According to the MSF, the TRIPS-plus...

-PTI The Odisha government has also decided to link Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries for availing ration under NFSA and work under MGNREGA. Bhubaneswar: The Odisha government on Thursday said it has decided to make Aadhaar card mandatory for procurement of paddy in the state. This apart, the government has also decided to link Aadhaar numbers of beneficiaries for availing ration under NFSA and work under MGNREGA. “All farmers will be paid online for paddy...

-The Indian Express A Pulses Revolution is possible even in the most backward districts, as a PPP project in Bundelkhand has shown. Damoh (Madhya Pradesh): Zahim Khan has two major worries, as he surveys the urad (black gram) crop on 14 out of the 20-acres land being jointly cultivated by him with 13 other farmers. The immediate concern is rains. Damoh district in Madhya Pradesh’s Bundelkhand region, of which his village Somkheda is...