-The Hindu 144 institutions were de-empanelled Non-genuine 18,606 hospital transactions were detected in the Ayushman Bharat – Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB-PMJAY) with penalty amounting to Rs.29.72 crore being levied on erring hospitals. Also 144 hospitals were de-empanelled from the scheme based on confirmed fraudulent behavior, said the Health Ministry in its reply to the Parliament in the recently concluded session. The Ministry added that the National Health Authority (NHA)—the implementing agency...

Scientific knowledge has immensely helped in combating the dreadful coronavirus and its spread. Within a record short period of time, scientists (including virologists, epidemiologists, biostatisticians, etc.) and their research outputs helped the commoners to learn more about the SARS-CoV-2 and how it spreads from one individual to the next one. Common people have now come to know how simple techniques and behavioural change like the wearing of N95 masks, maintaining...

-Scroll.in Technologies are known to increase bias, resulting in inaccurate judgements for minorities. In 2012, in United States’ Santa Cruz, a company called Predpol Inc devised a software that promised to predict future criminal activities by analysing past criminal records and identifying patterns. This simple idea of “predictively policing” an unsuspecting population aimed to change the face of law and order in the US. Police departments in major US cities began to use...

-The Indian Express The Maha Agri Tech project attempts to mitigate agricultural risks by using data anlytics to plug gaps. Launched in January this year, the Maha Agri Tech project seeks to use technology to address various cultivation risks ranging from poor rains to pest attacks, accurately predict crop-wise and area-wise yield and eventually to use this data to inform policy decisions including pricing, warehousing and crop insurance. When farmers in...

-The Hindu Business Line Kochi (Kerala): The two-day conference on ‘Models for Agricultural Development: Experiences of Farmer Producer Companies’, has called for sustained efforts to strengthen, streamline, support and coordinate Farmer Producer Organisations. The conference, jointly organised by the Department of Agricultural Economics, Kerala Agriculture University and Indian Society of Agricultural Economics (ISAE), mooted a national level consortium to help the FPCs realise their goals and lead the efforts to enhance farmers’...