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Category: Editorials
July 01, 2007
On May 14, 2007, Binayak Sen was arrested by the Chattisgarh police under sections of the Chhatisgarh Special Public Security Act, 2005, and Unlawful Activities (Prevention) Act, 1967 (2004) for alleged links with the banned Maoist groups. His arrest was the upshot of his attempts to raise issues...
January 01, 2007
Vaccines have fascinated public health and clinical practitioners since Edward Jenner's experimental inoculation of a young boy, James Philip, using cowpox blisters of the hand of Sarah Nelmes, a dairy worker. Less than 50 years later vaccination became the preferred method of combating smallpox ...
April 01, 2007
Recent press reports of kidneys being bought and sold in Tamil Nadu only brought to general notice what many doctors and nearly all patients with kidney failure already know: one can buy a kidney in Tamil Nadu or, for that matter, in many parts of this subcontinent. While the k...
October 01, 2006
For some time now, a set of scientists has been glorifying the "magic" of a "truth serum". They insist it can make hard-core criminals talk and spill the truth about their misdeeds. Medical professionals are often involved in experiments, for many decades now, with the various technologies that a...
October 01, 2006
Two predominant issues in the current pharmaceutical scenario in India are data exclusivity and the range of drugs under price control.
July 01, 2006
Perhaps no event in the recent past captured the imagination of the mainstream media as much as the protests against the proposal to introduce reservations for other backward classes in some institutions of higher education. Although a small but active group of doctors supports reservations, thei...
July 01, 2006
Recent reports in the media about illness and death due to malnutrition, in the adivasi belt in Maharashtra and in the slum colonies of Mumbai, have once again highlighted the persistent and deteriorating problem of chronic hunger in India.
April 01, 2006
The strike by resident doctors of Maharashtra in February and March this year focussed attention once again on the poor state of affairs in public hospitals in India. In the recent past there have been a number of such strikes in various parts of the country.
April 01, 2006
The proposal to permit the dismantling of the French ship Clemenceau, containing several tonnes of asbestos and other toxic material, led to a lot of discussion in the media. The discussion centred on the pros and cons of permitting the import of hazardous waste from developed countries despite i...
April 01, 2006
More than 3 million cases of dog bite occur annually in India and hundreds of thousands of people are exposed to the risk of contracting rabies. But they are deprived of the free anti-rabies vaccine due to several unethical practices of the government and pharmaceutical companies.