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In the National Health Policy (NHP) 2017 document the government has admitted that every year nearly 6.3 crore people go below poverty line because of out of pocket expenditure on health. About 70% of this expenditure is on drugs and other consumables alone. There has been talk of producing cheap bulk drugs, use of drugs under generic names and also there have been fixation of price of some medicines by the government and opening of fair price medical shops. But the issue still remains as before. The government also admits that the public spending on health is very low. Therefore it is important that the issue is addressed seriously and in right spirit.

Qatar has done remarkably well to hold out against the diplomatic and economic blockade enforced by its powerful neighbours, including Saudi Arabia and the UAE. The tiny Gulf nation, a description most detested by Doha, but done to death by all others, has even teased its tormentors saying it can go on forever and manage to live with the embargo. Initially, there were signs of panic, particularly about supply of food and other essentials in view of the land, air and sea blockade, but with generous help from Turkey and Iran, the situation has stabilized and Qataris have got themselves accustomed to the change. Not only that, Qatar has notified the boycott group about its intention to sue them under international laws for causing big losses to its business entities.

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: The Kerala unit of the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) has suffered a big setback following sensational disclosures about the alleged involvement of state party leaders in a ‘medical college bribery’ scam.

Any country entering into a strategic relation or partnership with other country in the present geopolitical perspective is not a forbidden diplomatic exercise. Obviously India conferring the status of strategic partner to Israel during the visit of the Prime Minister, Narendra Modi to that country has not come as surprise. Though some experts have lauded this gesture of Modi, the ultimate question that has cropped up how and in what manner this new found relation will help India?

BHOPAL: The debate on an adjournment motion tabled by the Opposition in the MP Vidhan Sabha on the plight of farmers saw strange arguments being put forward by the ruling party legislators, including senior ministers, while listing the causes for suicides by farmers.

The last four days of the current monsoon session of Parliament have shown unity of the opposition parties in taking on the Narendra Modi Government in the two houses on both the farmers distress throughout the country and the RSS inspired cow vigilantism resulting in selective lynching. The situation in the country is boiling both on the social and the economic fronts but the opposition parties, especially the Congress have been failing to take political advantage of the severe discontent of the masses against the three year rule of the Narendra Modi government.

The death of Trumpcare in the Senate on July 18, while not the final victory for healthcare for all Americans, was indeed a huge victory for the resistance that has swept the country since the election of Trump. Activists and advocates for better U.S. health care vowed to keep the pressure on Congress after two more Senate Republicans’ defections killed the latest GOP plan to repeal and allegedly replace the Affordable Care Act, the nation’s 7-year-old comprehensive health care law.

PATNA: He had taken over the reign of the chief minister with the promise to usher the state and its people into a new bright future, take them out of the morass of backwardness and empower them. But after 13 years of his government, which incidentally was acclaimed and applauded as the example of good governance, it is an irony that the state has failed to achieve any major success in providing a new direction to education, a major component of the human development index.

The Narendra Modi government appears to be simultaneously moving in two opposite directions.

BHOPAL: The monsoon session of Madhya Pradesh Vidhan Sabha, which began on July 17, is set to prove troublesome for the BJP government. The opposition has announced that it will not allow the proceeding of the Vidhan Sabha unless Dr. Narottam Mishra, disqualified by the Election Commission and debarred from contesting elections for three years, is removed from the cabinet. Not only the opposition, even constitutional experts hold the view that after the Election Commission's verdict he has no right to continue in the cabinet and also as a member of the Assembly. Constitutional expert Subhash Kashyap has expressed the view that Mishra is a legal convict from the day he was declared disqualified and he ceased to be a minister and also a legislator. All facilities enjoyed by him should have been withdrawn. The provision that one can continue as a minister for six months without being a legislator is not applicable to a person who has lost eligibility to contest elections.