Govt to pick up medical tab for poor

August 9, 2012
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New Delhi, August 9: It's raining sops for the poor. The government is making treatment of people below the poverty line suffering from mental disorders and diabetes free at government or public super speciality hospitals like AIIMS.

In the maiden endorsement of India's swelling burden of patients suffering from mental disorders, the ministry has included it under the Rashtriya Arogya Nidhi (RAN) — the scheme that till now provided financial assistance to only those BPL patients suffering from major life-threatening diseases like cancer.

All BPL patients suffering from mental disorders like depression, anxiety, adjustment and personality disorders will be given a free one-time grant of upto Rs 1 lakh for treatment.

In cases where the quantum of financial assistance is likely to exceed Rs 1.5 lakh, they will be referred to an expert committee headed by the DGHS for consideration.

The ministry has also included diabetes — an ail-ment that presently affects nearly 50 million Indians — under RAN.

A ministry note says, "7% of population suffers from mental disorders. Around 13 crore Indians are suffering from some form of mental illness like depression and anxiety syndromes to psychosomatic disorders and schizophrenia. Over 90% remain untreated. There is less than one psychiatrist available for every four lakh population. The psychiatrist/population ratio is one for every million."

For providing financial assistance to the needy patients, an advance of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 40 lakh has been kept with medical superintendents of institutes like the AIIMS, RML Hospital, Safdarjung Hospital, Lady Hardinge Medical College (Delhi), PGIMER (Chandigarh), JIPMER (Puducherry), NIMHANS (Bangalore), CNCI (Kolkata), SGPGIMS (Lucknow), Gandhi Memorial and Associated Hospitals (Lucknow), RIMS (Imphal) and NEIGRIHMS (Shillong) to enable immediate sanction of an amount up to Rs 1 lakh in each deserving case.

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad says it is a matter of great concern that India has such a high burden of mental disorders, with such disorders still grossly overlooked in India. He said that about 20% of all patients seen by primary healthcare doctors have one or more mental disorders. One in four families is likely to have at least one member with a behavioural or mental disorder.

India currently has 23% of required psychiatrists, 25% of required psychiatric nurses and only 3% of the required clinical psychologists and psychiatric social workers. In absolute numbers, India has 3,500 psychiatrists, 500 clinical psychologists, 300 psychiatric social workers and about a 1,000 psychiatric nurses.


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News Network
January 7,2020

Jan 7: India’s monetary authority allowed banks to offer foreign-currency transactions outside of local market hours, a move aimed at boosting trading volumes at home.

Interbank deals, as well as those with customers in and outside India, can be undertaken by banks or their overseas branches and units at all times, the Reserve Bank of India said in a statement late Monday. It stopped short of saying whether the timing of the onshore over-the-counter market has been extended from the current 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The move is in line with recent recommendations to reverse the trend of the partially convertible rupee being traded more abroad than in India. London has overtaken Mumbai to become the top center for trading the rupee, adding to a sense of urgency among local authorities to deepen the onshore market.

Average daily volumes for rupee in the U.K. soared to $46.8 billion in April, a more than fivefold jump from $8.8 billion in 2016, according to a survey from the Bank for International Settlements published in September. That exceeded the $34.5 billion recorded in India.

Analysts say more trading abroad could amplify volatility in the domestic market and reduce the effectiveness of policy actions.

India’s decision comes as the London Stock Exchange Group Plc has started asking market participants if they want the bourse to function fewer hours, signaling it’s open to an argument driven by changing trading patterns and calls for a better work-life balance.

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Agencies
July 11,2020

New Delhi, Jul 11: A notice which claims that a COVID-19 Monitoring Committee has been formed is fake, and no such committee has been set up by the Union Home Ministry, as per Spokesperson, Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA).

The "Fake" MHA order stated, "Pursuant to the official orders received dated: Monday, May 18, 2020, of the Honourable Minister of Home Affairs, passed in the approval of Special Status Advisory Committee for COVID-19, a COVID-19 Monitoring Committee has been constituted in the MHA vide order dated: Friday, June 12, 2020."

MHA Spokesperson also cautioned people to beware of fake news and rumours.

India's COVID-19 case count crossed the eight lakh-mark on Saturday with yet another highest single-day spike of 27,114 new cases in the last 24 hours.

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News Network
March 12,2020

New Delhi, Mar 12: The Supreme Court told the Uttar Pradesh government on Thursday that as of now, there was no law that could back their action of putting up roadside posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests in Lucknow.

An apex court bench refused to stay the March 9 Allahabad High Court order directing the Yogi Adityanath administration to remove the posters.

The top court, which grilled the Uttar Pradesh government for putting up such posters in public, described the plea as a matter that needed "further elaboration and consideration".

A vacation bench of justices U U Lalit and Aniruddha Bose said a "bench of sufficient strength" would consider next week the Uttar Pradesh government's appeal against the Allahabad High Court order directing the state administration to remove the posters of those accused of vandalism during anti-CAA protests.

It directed the apex court registry to put up the case file before Chief Justice of India (CJI) S A Bobde so that a "bench of sufficient strength can be constituted at the earliest to hear and consider" the case next week.

During the hearing, the bench told Solicitor General Tushar Mehta, appearing for the Uttar Pradesh government, that it was a matter of "great importance".

It asked Mehta whether the state government had the power to put up such posters.

The top court, however, said there was no doubt that action should be taken against rioters and they should be punished.

Mehta told the court that the posters were put up as a "deterrent" and the hoardings only said that these persons were liable to pay for their alleged acts during the violence.

Senior advocate A M Singhvi, appearing for former IPS officer S R Darapuri whose poster has also been affixed in Lucknow, told the bench that the state was duty-bound to show the authority of law backing its action.

He said the action of the Uttar Pradesh government amounted to a "mega blanket" approach of naming and shaming these persons without final adjudication and it was an open invitation to common men to lynch them as the posters also had their addresses and photographs.

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