Kerala, Punjab & Tamil Nadu Top NITI Aayog's Health Index

Kerala, Punjab and Tamil Nadu topped the list of Healthy State progressive report released by NITI Aayog today among the larger states in terms of overall performance. The NITI Aayog released the report in New Delhi this afternoon.

While releasing the report, CEO Amitabh Kant said that Jharkhand, Jammu and Kashmir and Uttar Pradesh were the the top three three states in the terms of annual incremental performance. He said, the health index has been evolved through comprehensive study and inputs from World Bank India and Ministry of Health. Mr Kant said, State and Union territory have been ranked in three categories namely larger states, smaller states and Union territories.

He said, among smaller states Mizoram ranked first followed by Manipur and Goa in terms of annual incremental performance. The NITI Aayog CEO said, among Union territories Lakshadweep showed best overall performance as well as highest annual incremental performance. He said, the study of incremental performance of states will ensure the government for better health outcomes.

The report said about one third of the states has registered a decline in there performance in 2016 as compared to 2015. It said, common challenges for the states is to address vacancies in key staff, establishment of Cardiac Care Units and quality accreditation of public health facilities. Speaking on the occasion, Member (Health) in the NITI Aayog, Dr Vinod Paul said, absolute and incremental changes in health outcomes as measured by the Health Index, promotes cross-learning between states and captures the spirit of cooperative and competitive federalism.

Read More

India Announces World's Largest Health Programme

Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget 2018-19 in the Parliament on Thursday, where he had a challenge to not just realise the 'New India' dream by spurring growth, but also meet expectations of millions of people and different sections of society and businesses of the country.
World's largest government-funded health programme - 'National Health Protection Scheme' was announced. It will cover 10 crore poor and vulnerable families by providing upto Rs 5 lakh per family per year. The government will launch 'Revitalising of Infrastructure and Systems in Education' by 2022 with a total investment of Rs 1 lakh crore in next 4 years.
This budget is significant as it was Modi government's fifth and final full budget. It is also the first one after GST implementation. Clearly, the focus is on low-cost farming. He said besides 'ease of doing business', the government is also focusing on 'ease of living' now. “
Higher Minimum Support Price of all crops shall be increased to at least 1.5 times that of the production cost.Hardwork of farmers resulted in a record production of more than 275 million tonnes of food grain and about 300 million tonnes of horticultural produce,” FM  said.
The Finance Minister expressed hope that economy will grow at 7.2 percent to 7.5 percent in the second half of 2017-18. He exuded confidence that India is on track to grow at 8 percent.
He proposed to raise institutional credit for agriculture to Rs 11 lakh crore for 2018-19. National Livelihood Mission allocated Rs. 5,750 cr in 2018-19.
Bamboo is green gold and restructured National Bamboo Mission will be launched with an allocation of Rs 1,290 crore to promote bamboo sector in a holistic manner, Jaitley said.
Air Pollution in Delhi NCR is a cause for concern, special scheme will be implemented to support Govts of Haryana, Punjab, UP and Delhi NCT to address it and subsidize machinery for management of crop residue, FM said.
By 2022, every block with more than 50% ST population and at least 20,000 tribal people will have 'Ekalavya' school at par with Navodaya Vidyalas.
Government plans to construct 2 crore more toilets under Swachh Bharat Mission, he informed.
Jaitley said the government has successfully implemented series of structural reforms as a result of which India is one of the fastest growing economies in the world. He said FDI has gone up and Indian economy is now a 2.5 trillion economy.

Read More

Doctors Expected To Be More Safe Now

The Maharashtra government has taken a commendable decision allowing stringent punishment for attacks of medical professionals.

Attacks on doctors and hospitals will attract stringent punishment including a maximum of three years imprisonment and fine of Rs 50,000, in Maharashtra with the state Assembly today passing a bill in this regard, according to PTI story.

Bhaskar Jadhav, Minister of State for Law said the legislation proposes to recover compensation for damage or loss caused to the property of the medicare service institution twice the amount of the damage or loss caused.

Doctors in Pune as well as Maharashtra were pressing for such an Act for long. The incidents of attack on medical professionals has been a hotly debated issue. City chapter of Indian Medical Association as well as state chapter had even observed a strike last year for the law. In wake of the new law, it is expected the incidents will come down, if not stopped.

Read More