Union Health Minister Dr Harsh Vardhan is taking cognisance of a tragedy in a hospital in the Rajasthan city of Kota, with more than 100 children dying in the span of a single month in a single hospital. The Union Minister has written to Rajasthan Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot, concerning the government-run JK Lon Hospital […]
Congress
Did the state budget promise relief for farmers in Rajasthan?
Towards the end of June, 45-year-old Sohan Lal Kadela was found dead in the town of Raisinghnagar in Rajasthan. Lal was a farmer, who took out a crop loan of Rs 2.5 lakh. Unable to repay, and facing pressure to do so, he committed suicide by ingesting pesticides. “People have been troubling me and demanding […]
What a US think tank thinks about Ayushman Bharat
A major American think tank has given a cautious vote of confidence in the Modi government’s flagship health insurance initiative, the Pradhan Mantri-Jan Arogya Yojana (PMJAY) – popularly known as Ayushman Bharat, or Modicare. The Washington D.C.-based Center for Global Development (CGD) credits the initiative with “[putting] healthcare within reach for hundreds of millions, significantly […]
Video: #HealthForPolls, Making Health for All a reality
The Modi government launched last year the world’s largest health insurance scheme, the Pradhan Mantri Jan Aarogya Yojana – better known as ‘Ayushman Bharat’ or ‘Modicare’. It offers a Rs 5 lakh annual cover per family for secondary and tertiary healthcare at public and empanelled private hospitals. While the government claims the scheme has also […]
Congress hits out at AYUSH Ministry
A major part of the Government’s healthcare agenda has been the promotion of alternative medicines. To this end, the BJP government established a cabinet ministry in 2014 to promote traditional and alternative medicine systems like ayurveda, yoga, naturopathy, unani, siddha, and homoeopathy named the AYUSH ministry). Under the previous Congress government, AYUSH was a small […]
#HealthForPolls: Congress makes health a priority
Congress has put healthcare back on the electoral discourse by making it one of its topmost priorities in its manifesto 2019. Perhaps the party has been forced to push up the rhetoric regarding health to counter the BJP government’s Ayushman Bharat Scheme. Sticking to its decade-long promise of Right to Healthcare, Congress aims to increase […]
Rahul Gandhi offers his vision for health
Indian election campaigning, induced with clamour over nationalism, has witnessed the first signs of health being included in the political discourse. As India prepares to go to the polls next month, Friday saw Congress leader Rahul Gandhi throw down the gauntlet on health as a poll issue. He pledged to double government spending on health […]