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Health planning in India started in 1938. The British government had formed a committee, popularly known as Bhore committee under the chairmanship of Sir Joseph Bhore, who was an Indian civil servant and Diwan of the Cochin State. The committee was formed in 1943 to survey the then existing position regarding health conditions and health organizations in the country. The committee submitted its report in 1946 and recommended that “the health programme should be developed on a foundation of preventive health work and that ‘if the nation’s health has to be built, such activities should proceed side by side those concerned with treatment of patients’. It was based on the principles that no individual should be denied the opportunity to secure adequate medical care because of inability to pay; health programme must lay special emphasis on preventive work; health service should be located close to the people; medical services should be free to all without any distinction and doctor should be a social physician. The committee also observed that health and development are inter-dependent and improvement in other sectors like water supply, sanitation, nutrition, employment lead to improvement in health status.

By restoring the provision for summary arrest of people accused of atrocities against dalits and backward classes, the Modi government has solved a major political challenge to its credibility, but left open even a more serious judicial question: can a legal principle be applied selectively? The Supreme Court had struck down the law as ultra virus of the Constitution.

How will the political scenario unfold in Tamil Nadu after Karunanidhi? The Tamil state has already seen how the events shaped after demise of Jayalalithaa. A well entrenched party like AIADMK is on the verge of split and it has been reduced to minority in the state assembly. Tamil Nadu will not be the same after the passing away of both Jayalalithaa and Karunanidhi. With the demise of Karunanidhi, the DMK finds itself at a crucial juncture in the state’s politics. In the post Karunanidhi and post Jayalalithaa era, new battle lines are being drawn and new ideologies are taking shape in the state.

Time 12.20 pm. Twitter handle @pendown warned “4.25 lakh liters of water is gushing out per second from Idukki dam. In four hours waters will reach Aluva.” And Aluva is not far from Kochi. From the Kerala Express, sight of the chimneys of brick mills signal the train will soon brake at Ernakulam South Junction. @pendown could have told the world Aluva was already underwater.

The Workers’ Party (Partido dos Trabalhadores, or PT) of Brazil has decided to run the country’s extremely popular former president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, known by all as “Lula,” as its candidate in the October presidential elections in this nation of 200 million people. The first round of voting will be held on October 7, with a possible runoff on October 28.

“The Hurrier I go, the behinder I get.” Repeating these words of Lewis Carroll from Alice in Wonderland, the Delhi High Court in its judgment on 4 August 2018 set aside the 14 September 2016 Delhi government notification on minimum wages, which increased the minimum wages in Delhi to Rs. 13,350 to the unskilled, Rs. 14,698 to the semi-skilled and Rs. 16,182 to the skilled. Early media reports, however, were a bit vague and suggested that the court had set aside the notification because “it was a ‘hurried’ decision taken without hearing the employers or employees who would be affected”. Delhi Labour Minister. Gopal Rai said in a statement, “The Delhi government disagrees with the Delhi HC verdict and views with extreme disappointment the erroneous conclusion arrived at by the court, after having heard the matter for almost a year-and-a-half, and after having kept the verdict reserved for many months."While crosschecking immediately with the Delhi trade union sources, they confirmed that both the labour representatives and employers’ representatives were heard during several rounds of meetings.

More and more details are coming out of the controversial deal concluded by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in 2015 for the purchase of 36 Rafale fighter jet planes for the Indian defence forces and it is apparent that the Prime Minister has totally sacrificed the interests of the high performing public sector Hindustan Aeronautics Ltd (HAL) to patronize a company of an industrialist which has no experience in the area and which set up the unit only ten days before the deal was conncluded.

NEW DELHI: IndiaTech.Org, a non-profit, voluntary industry association established with the objective of creating a strong and vibrant internet based tech and innovation ecosystem in India, has appointed Rameesh Kailasam as its CEO.

Wednesday, a Tamil scholar won the day, posthumously. Thursday, a Hindi aficionado was chosen Rajya Sabha deputy chairperson. A balancing of languages! One as old as the tongue. The other still flung on faces where it’s yet to ring.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) leaders lose no opportunity to hawk the delights of cooperative federalism. However, the gap between their public pronouncements and practice remains infuriatingly yawning.