KEY TRENDS • Oxfam India's 2023 India Supplement report on poverty and inequality in India reveals that the gap between the rich and the poor is widening. Following the pandemic in 2019, the bottom 50 per cent of the population have continued to see their wealth chipped away. By 2020, their income share was estimated to have fallen to only 13 per cent of the national income and have less than 3...
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Indian banks gave more home loans than agricultural credit
In each of the last three years – from 2020 through 2022 – Indian banks lent more money to retail customers purchasing homes than they did to farmers. In fiscal year (FY)2021-22 commercial banks gaveRs. 17.54 lakh crore worth of housing loans, while agriculture and allied activities got Rs. 15.16 lakh crore. That is nearly 14 percent less. In FY 2021 and FY 2020 – one of which saw a...
More »9 of World's 10 most air-polluted cities in South Asia, deadly air causes 2 million premature deaths - World Bank
Urgent action needed to curb deadly air pollution in South Asia A new report by the World Bank states that Nine out of the world’s 10 cities with the worst air pollution are in South Asia. Ambient air pollution is a public health crisis for South Asia, not only imposing high economic costs but also causing an estimated 2 million premature deaths each year. The health impacts of air pollution range...
More »The need to make cancer drugs affordable -Biswajit Dhar and Chetali Rao
-The Hindu With the Rajya Sabha Standing Committee on Health expressing concern over the high cost of cancer treatment, the Government invoking Section 100 of the Patents Act is a way forward The subject of the spiralling costs of cancer medicines and their implications that have frequently been highlighted the world over were dwelled on in a recent report (“Cancer Care Plan and Management”) by the Rajya Sabha’s Standing Committee on Health....
More »Parliamentary panel calls for free cancer treatment -GS Mudur
-The Telegraph Committee asks govt to take steps to strengthen radiotherapy facilities in the country, expressing concerns about inadequate infrastructure A parliamentary panel has asked the Centre to provide free cancer treatment to middle-class households through a government-funded health insurance scheme and to cap cancer diagnostics and treatment services in government and private hospitals. The parliamentary standing committee on health has also called on the government to take steps to strengthen radiotherapy facilities...
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