Tuesday, September 11, 2012

HEADLINES

• The agitation against the Kudankulam Nuclear Power Project in Tamil Nadu turned violent on Monday, with protesters attacking policemen, and police resorting to lathi-charge and the firing of teargas shells; one dies in firing
• New Home Minister Shinde indicates that Govt will go slow on the Telangana issue and the setting up of the National Counter Terrorism Centre

NATIONAL NEWS

• Incentives-linked plan to detect TB cases
  • The national strategic plan for TB control for 2012-17 developed by the Union Ministry of Health & Family Welfare has raised the bar for tackling the fast- growing TB epidemic in the country. The main goal of the strategic plan is to provide universal access to early diagnosis and effective treatment;
  • According to the draft report of the fifth Joint Monitoring Mission (JMM) of the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme , the strategic plan, if implemented in full earnest, would save about 7,50,000 lives over the next five years. The JMM has recognised the compulsion to comprehensively engage with the private sector for “prompt and accurate diagnosis, and appropriate care”;
  • The government had very recently made TB a notifiable disease. This will help in maintaining a national record of every patient who is diagnosed with TB by doctors in the private and public sector. In order to achieve maximum co-operation from the doctors, the report has, for the first time, spelled out the need to provide incentives for reporting cases;
  • Apart from stopping easy availability of anti-TB drugs, there are plans of “restricting the availability of impending new anti-TB drugs to authorised outlets.” This would be done by putting in place stringent and accountable distribution controls;
  • Another novel recommendation is to make available subsidised anti-TB drug kits to the private sector on a quid pro basis. The availability of the subsidised kits would be “linked to notification and programme-provided treatment support”;
  • A tectonic shift is being planned in the way new cases are detected. The current system is a passive one, wherein case detection is initiated by the patients themselves. This greatly reduces case detection. To overcome this hurdle, there are plans of introducing a “provider-initiated screening pathway.” This will focus on clinical risk groups and socially vulnerable groups;
  • Another way of increasing the number of TB patients diagnosed is to provide automated electronic payments for both referrals and treatment support. Using automated electronic payment mode would avoid the problems of delay or failure in payment.
• National scheme for free medicines for all sought
  • The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan, a civil society group, called upon the Union Government to extend free medicine supply scheme, presently operational in a few States like Rajasthan and Tamil Nadu, all over the country to reduce out-of-pocket expenditure of common people on health care. Such a scheme would especially benefit the patients deprived of any kind of treatment due to poverty;
  • The Jan Swasthya Abhiyan pointed out that most of the States have “very ambiguous” systems of supply of medicines in the Government-run medical institutions, forcing the patients to purchase medicines from chemists and pharmacies at exorbitant prices;
  • Significantly, the Working Group on Drugs and Food Safety chaired by Union Health & Family Welfare Secretary, steering committee for the 12th Five Year Plan and the high-level expert group constituted by the Planning Commission have unequivocally recommended introduction of a national scheme to provide free medicines to all in the country.
• If you have time, read this article which discusses an RTI which reveals the donations received by political parties in India

INTERNATIONAL NEWS

• As Brahimi starts mission, shadow of al-Qaeda is seen in Syria
  • Lakhdar Brahimi, new U.N. and Arab League Envoy, has begun to explore ways to end the conflict in Syria, where intense fighting prevails between government forces and the armed opposition — whose ranks are being bolstered by al-Qaeda elements;
  • Mr. Brahimi faces an uphill task as the polarisation between the Syrian government and the opposition appears to be peaking on account of the rapid inflow into the opposition’s ranks of al-Qaeda and affiliate elements.
• Ethiopia pardons journalists
  • The Ethiopian government has pardoned Martin Schibbye and Johan Persson — two Swedish journalists detained in July 2011 on terrorism charges and convicted in December last year;
  • Mr. Schibbye and Mr. Persson were serving eleven-year sentences for illegally entering Eastern Ethiopia with the Ogaden National Liberation Front (ONLF), an ethnic Somali self-determination party designated as a terror group by the Ethiopian government;
  • Over the last decade, Ethiopia has arrested seven journalists and forced another 79 reporters into exile.
• Canada turns its sights to India
  • After clinching a trade agreement with China, Canada is turning its sights to India. Prime Minister Stephen Harper is scheduled to visit New Delhi by year-end and to do the spadework for the visit, Foreign Minister John Baird arrived in Mumbai on Sunday with a couple of initiatives at hand, including a plan to operationalise a civil nuclear agreement. If implemented, the proposal will revive ties in nuclear energy;
  • Canada was one of the earliest partners in India’s quest for civil nuclear energy, but severed ties after allegations emerged that India diverted material and technology from Canadian-designed plants for its first nuclear bomb test in 1974;
  • Yet, Canada was among an early group of countries to back the Nuclear Suppliers Group’s exemption for India in 2010, which allowed New Delhi to join the global civil nuclear commerce, though it did not sign up to the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty;
  • The two countries have not enjoyed the best of ties since the 1974 nuclear test, what with several issues of discord having cropped up, but they have other unfinished businesses. Ottawa is reorienting itself in a big way to Asia and would like to bolster the bilateral trade and investment protection treaty it signed with Beijing, on the sidelines of the Asia Pacific Economic Summit in Vladivostok last week, with a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) with India.

EDITORIALS, OPINIONS & COLUMNS

• Read this article on the inefficiency of the recent vaccine trials for the Dengue virus
• Read this editorial on the constitutional sanctity of sedition charges in India
• Read this article on the recent controversy relating to copying of books at Delhi University. The article is one sided in favour of the publishers but it gives a view nevertheless
• If you have time, read this article which discusses the problems between Indian and Sri Lankan fishermen