Indian billionaires saw their combined fortunes more than double during the COVID-19 pandemic, and their count shot up by 39 per cent to 142, while the wealth of the ten richest is enough to fund school and higher education of children in the country for 25 years, a new study showed on Monday. In its annual inequality survey released on the first day of the World Economic Forum's online Davos Agenda summit, Oxfam India further said that an additional one per cent tax on the richest 10 per cent can provide the country with nearly 17.7 lakh extra oxygen cylinders, while a similar wealth tax on the 98 richest billionaire families would finance Ayushman Bharat, the world's largest health insurance scheme, for more than seven years. The COVID-19 pandemic saw a huge rush for oxygen cylinders and insurance claims during the second wave last year.
The IVRS is a toll-free service, where citizens are asked to give a missed call to the number 1921 and they will get a call back requesting for inputs regarding their health.
A battle is on between Ramadoss, who is the president of the institute, and Venugopal since last year when the apex body of the institute had recommended the dismissal of the director, which was stayed by the court.
Pharma major Dr Reddy's Laboratories has opposed the parliamentary Standing committee's recommendations of increasing the number of drugs under price control and cap on profit margins of all medicines.
The Central Bureau of Investigation on Monday sought a report from the Lucknow police on the alleged suicide by Sunil Verma, a key accused in National Rural Health Mission case who is believed to have carried "vital information" even as it continued questioning of senior officials as part of its probe into the scam.
Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss is on an official visit to China,
General Rahul into battle... did Markandey Katju stage a 'walkout'... the DMK dress code braves the North Indian winter... and ahem! yet another 'son rise' in Lucknow... chai and gupshup from the Dilli Darbar.
The ban will be in place for at least three months, according to an advisory issued by the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI), under the health and family welfare ministry.
Six days after he dared to sound the bugle of revolt against Uttar Pradesh Chief Minister Mayawati, former UP minister for family welfare and mines, Babu Singh Kushwaha, was served a notice of eviction from the ministerial bungalow he has been occupying in Lucknow.
In view of the continuous dip in coronavirus cases, the home ministry has decided to end its all Covid-19 containment measures from March 31, two years after their implementation following the outbreak of the pandemic.
Full list of the rejigged Union Council of Ministers
Six hundred and thirty COVID-19 patients have recovered in the last 24 hours, taking the recovery rate to 25.19 per cent in the country, said Lav Agarwal, joint secretary, ministry of health and family welfare, on Thursday.
Cricketer-turned-cop, Joginder Sharma is on the frontline in the battle against the highly contagious disease, as India is under a 21-day lockdown to contain the spread of COVID-19.
The Union ministry of health and family welfare is planning to adopt a mobile-based technology on the lines of the 108 ambulance services. This would be available in states, which do not have the 108 service.
Days after a number of families were evicted from 'encroached land' in three districts of Assam, Chief Minister Himanta Biswa Sarma on Thursday urged the minority community to adopt a 'decent family planning policy' for population control to reduce poverty.
The latest consignment from China consisted of about 1,70,000 PPE kits, including donations for the use of healthcare professionals involved in the treatment of COVID-19 patients. Sources said these PPE kits were sent to the Defence Research and Development Establishment (DRDE), Gwalior, for quality testing.
India's COVID-19 cases climbed from 100 to one lakh in 64 days, which is more than twice the number of days when compared to the United States and Spain.
A trained pilot, Dinesh Trivedi has a challenging task ahead in putting the Railways on track after his boss and Trinamool chief Mamata Banerjee often came under attack for alleged neglect of this key ministry hit by train accidents in the recent days.
The Omicron variant of COVID-19 is in the community transmission stage in India and it has also become dominant in multiple metros, where new cases have been rising exponentially, said Indian SARS-CoV-2 Genomics Consortium.
The Centre told the apex court that it has not issued any SOP that makes it mandatory to carry the vaccination certificate for any purpose.
Six Indian Air Force aircraft carrying relief material, rescue workers and doctors landed in Leh on Saturday to provide succour to the people of the region affected by cloudburst and flash floods.
Shashi Tharoor has also been retained as the chairman of the panel on Information Technology.
Last year, the minister had proposed the compulsory rural postings for all MBBS students. The announcement met with stiff resistance.
Azad was always a reluctant chief minister; coping with the swine flu scare might make him yearn for his former job.
'In India, a deadly wave of infection with the Delta variant stole 240,000 lives between April and June and disrupted economic recovery. Similar episodes could take place in the near term,' said the report.
The Act integrates multiplicity of provisions under various food related laws. It will among other things regulate food safety standards and uniform licensing in the country.
Chinese milk and milk products were found to have high content of melamine.
A decision to this effect has been taken after Arun Ramanathan retired as finance secretary on Thursday. Currently, Chawla is the senior-most official in the finance ministry. In addition, G C Chaturvedi, currently serving as additional secretary in the ministry of health and family welfare, has been appointed as additional secretary in-charge of the financial services department.
Amit Shah wants to increase the party's nationwide vote share by at least 10 per cent from the 37.7 per cent it secured five years ago and ensure above 50 per cent vote share in the states where it came close to that benchmark, but couldn't cross it.
The government is creating a database of traditional Indian drugs aimed at preventing wrongful patenting of drugs, including medicinal plants. This is being done to prevent misappropriation of knowledge about our ancient heritage and wrongful patenting of drugs," Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Panabaaka Lakshmi said. Speaking at the International Herbal Summit and Expo, Lakshmi said the efficacy of medicinal plants in India needs to be documented.
The richest one per cent in India now own more than 40 per cent of the country's total wealth, while the bottom half of the population together share just 3 per cent of wealth, a new study showed on Monday.
A letter sent out by Delhi government asked all medical directors to provide a written explanation on how the health workers contracted the disease despite wearing protective gear, maintaining safe distancing and taking all precautions.
The downpour, which has been lashing Bihar for the past few days, is because of the Hathiya Nakshatra," he said.
'People in politics have lost the value of being connected to their own people.' 'Now it's all about vote share, vote bank, how many parties can you break and make them join you.'
The health and family welfare ministry spent 70 per cent of its allocation till October. The ministry may need additional funds for the vaccination drive which is expected to be kicked off from January.
If young couples watch the assorted mindless programming on telly till well past midnight, Health Minister Azad believes they will drop off to sleep instead of indulging in sexual hank-panky.
Union Minister for Health and Family Welfare Anbumani Ramadoss has sent a communication to Human Resource Development Minister Arjun Singh to take appropriate measures to check this increasing trend in all nniversities and educational institutions.
In a letter to states and UTs on Monday, Additional Secretary in the Union Health Ministry Arti Ahuja advised them to pay attention to this aspect immediately and increase the testing in a strategic manner keeping in view the trend of case positivity in specific areas.
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