Allegedly in the midst of a major reform effort, the Uttar Pradesh healthcare system shows itself to be woefully unprepared for an outbreak of dengue. Abhijit Das reports.

The Joint Parliamentary Committee report on pesticides in colas reads like a charge-sheet on the functioning of many government ministries. Sudhirendar Sharma reports.

Even as many Indian hospitals invite a foreign clientele to world-class treatment facilities, the poor have to contend with a different and unregulated private sector, says Abhijit Das.

These National Human Rights Commission's hearings on the Right to Healthcare are bringing out hundreds of poor citizens' experiences of being refused public health care. Gone are the days when citizens endured this with a fatalism born out of years of hopelessness, writes Abhijit Das.

Medicine prices nationwide are likely to go up soon, including at public hospitals and dispensaries. Domestic manufacturers will withdraw critical but cheaper medicines as India gets ready to fulfill WTO obligations. Devinder Sharma argues that this is the beginning of a scientific apartheid.

Who can object to washing hands regularly to improve hygiene? In Kerala, the World Bank found out that it isn't enough to promote sensible messages; it's also important that the messages do not appear to be based on ulterior motives, like sales for MNC products. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The probability of an Indian mother dying during childbirth is roughly 10 times that of her Chinese counterpart. Reducing the Maternal Mortality Ratio (MMR) by three-quarters in 10 years is now a Millennium Development Goal. Why is MMR in India so high and how far are we from the goal? Arati Rao unravels the many challenges to saving mothers' lives.

In India, we have known the magic of turmeric all along. An Indian kitchen without a can of turmeric is rare. The world today is discovering this member of the ginger family. Scientists worldwide as well as in India are validating the medicinal properties of the root, reports Ramesh Menon.

The Ministry of Mines and Minerals says it may lift the ban on asbestos mining. It is ignoring the views of exposure victims, informed recommendations of public sector medical experts, and mounting evidence of an asbestos disease epidemic emerging in developed countries. The rationale to permit mining is hollow, writes Gopal Krishna.

The central government wants to ban the sale of non-iodised salt on grounds of rising iodine deficiency. However, states with notable rise in deficiency are those where a ban has already been in force for the past two decades – the north-eastern states and Uttar Pradesh. P Venu, an Assistant Salt Commissioner in Gujarat, connects the dots.

India has recently declared that it has achieved the tag of 'elimination' of leprosy as the number of cases is now just around one per 10,000 people. Still, a major challenge is to reach medicine to remote areas and tribal pockets which still battle with leprosy, and integrating the cured into society, says Ramesh Menon.

Public expenditure on health care today is a dismal 0.9% of GDP; the overwhelming majority of health costs are paid by patients out of pocket. For many, even minor illnesses can cause big financial setbacks, and hospitalisation is out of the question. As a result, the promise of the Bhore Committee's vision is in shambles, writes Arati Rao.

Tuberculosis has emerged as the greatest danger to India threatening the health of millions. More than 4,500 people die everyday unable to battle the disease. It is not AIDS that will be India's greatest threat, as most of us believe, warns Ramesh Menon.

In the last 20 years, the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) has emerged as an accelerator to Tuberculosis. It helps TB spread rapidly as the HIV patient's immune system is already weak. HIV's ability to fast forward TB has frightening implications, says Ramesh Menon.

In India's most populous state, with its low levels of sanitation, and high malnutrition rates, polio has made a dangerous comeback. The world is now looking at India to stem the spread as fears of the disease spreading to other parts of the world have come true. Ramesh Menon reports.

India's attitude to condoms and contraception is worrisome at a time when promiscuity has a stamp of approval. Condom manufacturers are pitching pleasure enhancement in their ads, instead of being direct about the protection against AIDS. Charumathi Supraja reports.

The elections in Punjab have unseated the Congress and ushered in the Akali-BJP. But will this change the fortunes of hundreds of cancer-impacted families in the Malwa region? Village after village is plagued by pesticide-linked cancer and rising debt. Umendra Dutt writes about Jajjal, one of them.

Recent data on health indicators suggest that while health care in Goa remains far ahead of the national average, there are many cracks in the system. Indeed, on many counts the state appears to be losing the ground gained earlier, even as new challenges loom. Rupa Chinai reports.

In July, 18 Nobel laureates met with over 500 young scientists from around the world in Germany. India sent 22 researchers. The meeting threw up many questions pertaining to the practice of scientific research in India. Varupi Jain has more.

Why would the Government of India deny a job to an individual who carries a mutation in the DNA? There is prejudice in the Indian society against individual perceived as "sexual anomalies". Vaijayanti Gupta initiates an educational discussion on the biology of sex and sexual orientations.

The expression 'women at risk' can no longer be used to describe only those engaged in sex work, and that strategies to address women's vulnerability to HIV must therefore take into account their varied risks, writes Sumita Thapar.

Quite a few debates are currently raging in the disability rights movement. Special schools or inclusive education, community based rehabilitation or institutionalised rehabilitation, job reservations or none - Prasanna Kumar Pincha discusses these and other questions.

The heavy rains of the south-west monsoon are a few weeks away and malaria usually follows, in Assam. The state has 20 per cent of malaria deaths in India, but this time, doctors say they have taken substantive measures. Ratna Bharali Talukdar reports.

Statistics are staggeringly in favour of breastfeeding, and surprising as it may be, breastfeeding rates in India are dismal. Krithika Ramalingam digs deeper into the factors at play.

Nearly 20 per cent of the world's blind are in India. Only donation of eyes after death can bring light into the lives of the needy. Ramesh Menon surveys the landscape of eye donations and finds much that still needs to be done.

Krithika Ramalingam

Union Human Resource Development (HRD) Minister Kapil Sibal would do well to assess the learnings from two recent and major HIV/AIDS awareness campaigns, before "looking into the ban on sex education", if he really wants to make change, writes Charumathi Supraja.

The failure in India is the major reason why the UN cannot meet the Millennium Development Goal of halving the 2.6 billion in the world without sanitation by 2015. South Asian countries resolve to try harder. Darryl D'Monte reports.

The better education and health outcome indicators in the southern states compared to the north, has been acknowledged for a long time. And yet to see it with one’s own eyes really drives home the poin,t say Reetika Khera.

As India moves closer to the deadline for achievement of its Millennium Development Goals, the critical need for effective family planning interventions and greater awareness of the same become more pronounced, writes Anuradha Sahni.

Junk food, lack of exercise, poor parenting and modern lazy lifestyles are all triggers for obesity among children, which is turning out to be a major health hazard in present-day India, says Ramesh Menon.

As the world observes the International Day of People with Disability on 3 December, Malini Shankar draws attention through a three-part series to the pathetic lack of attention and consideration for the disabled in the Indian Railways, the only cost-effective means of long distance travel for the masses.

Already struggling with low budgetary allocation for healthcare and shortage of trained staff, health services in Telangana and residual Andhra Pradesh have taken a more serious hit due to issues arising out of bifurcation. Tejaswini Pagadala reports.

A recent workshop in Karnataka focused on the health impact of coal-based power plants and other industrial pollutants and shared inputs on how to empower local communities to combat the same. Shripad Dharmadhikary reports.

Tales of medical malpractice and its impact on patients are all too common in India. But what does the culture of corruption mean for one who wishes to remain true to the noble profession that he had chosen for himself? Pavan Kulkarni finds out.

The Comptroller and Auditor General performance audit of the social welfare schemes for Persons with Disabilities run by the Department of Social Welfare, Government of Delhi, covering the years from 2009 to 2014, which got tabled recently brought forth some shocking facts, writes Himanshu Upadhyaya.

On World Mental Health Day, Pushpa Achanta shares the struggle of some mental illness survivors she met recently and hopes that our nation's Mental Health Program is implemented by the government earnestly.

There are 70 million diabetics in India, 80 percent of them have vision problems about which they are either not aware or lack access to good eye care. Swapna Majumdar reports how NGOs are partnering to reach out to the marginalised and providing them better eye care and prevention.

The Malenadu home garden and seed exchange network in the Uttara Kannada district of Karnataka has made an impressive beginning in saving seed diversity says Sunita Rao.

Leo Saldanha and Subramanya Sastry on the threats to the Kali River from pollution and sand mining and more recently a proposal to build the seventh dam across the river's last stretch.

A new legislation aims to bring in a rigorous process of planning, transparency and citizen participation together at the local level in Karnataka, says Vinay Baindur.

Incorporating a financial structure that allows stakeholders to hold each other accountable in their balance of interests can make municipal water supply a win-win for everyone, says Jacob John.

Anitha Pailoor profiles a large landholding family farm in Karnataka's Hassan district that switched from chemical farming to organic in the mid-nineties.

India Together

Karnataka's state government proposes to divert the waters of the Goa bound Mahadayi river back into the Malaprabha river to counter acute water scarcity. Kanchi Kohli digs deeper.

The Karnataka Election Watch Committee collected an enormous amount of data about candidates as the state went into Assembly and Lok Sabha polls late last month. A brief report.

Citizens and government are thinking differently about each other on access to information, notes Subramaniam Vincent. The Central law in the next challenge.

True, Bangalore must be able to handle more flights, passengers and air freight to meet current demand and future growth. But London’s Heathrow airport sits on 1000 acres less land, and yet flies 14 times more passengers than Bangalore's new airport will. What's going on? Jacob John investigates.

There is no overlap between the administrative jurisdictions of various city agencies, or congruence with political boundaries. The result: the citizen is confused, the local politician is confused, the agency representatives are confused. Ramesh Ramanathan calls for a transformation of this chaotic situation.

The potential of rainwater harvesting has been much talked about in recent times. But that an ordinary plastic water storage drum connected to the roof through a pipe will turn this potential to reality is surprising many citizens in the Bangalore-Mysore region, reports Shree Padre.