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Category: Editorials
July 01, 2008
A recent news item reported on the Indian Medical Association’s decision to endorse the Tropicana brand of fruit juices and Quaker brand of oats. The director of the Centre for Science and Environment, Sunita Narain, has objected to the association’s actions, calling them “advertisement tricks”.
July 01, 2008
The dispute between the country’s minister for health and the director of its premier institution for medical education highlights the immaturity of our institutions which are used for personal battles instead of public policy. We should consider whether these men, and the institutions that they ...
July 01, 2008
The state shall regard the raising of the level of nutrition and the standard of living of its people, and the improvement of public health, as among its primary duties and, in particular, the state shall endeavour to bring about prohibition of the consumption except for medicinal purposes of int...
April 01, 2008
Infection by the Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza (HPAI) virus strain H5N1 has wrought periodic havoc in several pockets in the country in the last two years, most recently in West Bengal. Millions of domestic fowl potentially infected with the virus have been slaughtered, affecting the liveliho...
April 01, 2008
What is remarkable about the Budget 2008-2009 as far as health care is concerned is that there is nothing remarkable about it. It continues the pattern that has been set in place for well over four decades now, of providing schemes which at best can be called hoodwinking the people. Thus governme...
July 01, 2008
Everyone has a right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food, clothing, housing, and medical care, and necessary social services.
January 01, 2008
Promoted by the government and fuelled by the corporate boom in medical care, India is increasingly seen as the favoured destination of "medical tourists" who cross national boundaries to seek treatment that is cheaper than in their home countries. Medical tourism is a multi-billion dollar indust...
October 01, 2007
Despite more than a half century of proclamations on primary healthcare, most rural facilities in India continue to lack enough providers, equipment and infrastructure to offer effective and efficient care. In the latest effort to address this inequitable distribution the union health and family ...
January 01, 2008
The Sukhadeo Thorat Committee, constituted to enquire into the alleged harassment of students from the scheduled castes and tribes in the All India Institute of Medical Sciences, found widespread evidence of such harassment. To make matters worse, the committee found that the faculty, largely fro...
July 01, 2007
A recent Supreme Court judgement is unwelcome and regressive for the women's movement, especially for reproductive rights. When hearing an appeal in the Ghosh vs Ghosh divorce case, the court ruled on March 26, 2007: "If a husband submits himself for an operation of sterilisation without medical ...