THE NUMBER THAT REWRITES THE STORY Somewhere in the crowded corridors of a government hospital in Lucknow, a nurse scans a QR code. In 4 seconds, she sees the patient’s blood test from 2 months ago, the prescription from a private clinic in Kanpur, and the discharge summary from a district hospital. Nothing was lost…
The Ledger of Progress and Its Hidden Deficit There is a number that should prompt reflection before celebration. India’s Ministry of Health and Family Welfare received an allocation of ₹1,06,530.42 crore in Union Budget 2026-27. This was a 10% increase over the revised estimates of FY 2025-26 and a cumulative 194% growth over 12 years…
India’s digital health programme has hit a milestone that few countries can match. The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission has crossed 90 crore Ayushman Bharat Health Accounts. That is more than two-thirds of India’s population of approximately 1.4 billion holding a unique digital health identity. Few, if any, other countries have built a health ID system…
The pledge directs $40 million to maternal mental health in Africa and $10 million to close the menopause care gap across the United States. Philanthropist Melinda French Gates announced Thursday a $215 million commitment to women’s health through her organisation Pivotal, covering contraceptive access, maternal care, and a notable new push into menopause treatment in…
More than half a century since India started the first blindness prevention programme in the world, the nation still carries one of the greatest burdens of avoidable blindness anywhere in the world. While clinicians fight their usual foe of blindness caused by cataract in rural clinics, a new enemy has appeared on the horizon, in…
A viral video circulating on social media platforms highlighting young girls exposing themselves to danger in fetching water amid soaring temperatures in Khargone, Madhya Pradesh, has reignited discussions about the issue of rural water scarcity in India. Although great strides have been made through the Jal Jeevan Mission, much still needs to be done. Access…
The International Institute for Population Sciences (IIPS), Mumbai, has released the fact sheets of the National Family Health Survey (NFHS) 2023–24, for the sixth round of India’s largest and most widely used health and demographic survey. The findings come nearly five years after NFHS-5 (2019–21), at a time when reducing child malnutrition remains a key…
India’s public health landscape is experiencing a notable demographic shift. The latest Sample Registration System (SRS) Statistical Report from the Registrar General of India shows that the country’s Infant Mortality Rate (IMR) has dropped to 24 deaths per 1,000 live births. The Total Fertility Rate (TFR) has also fallen to 1.9, below the replacement level…
After COVID-19 gripped the world in 2020, health systems, governments and international institutions everywhere vowed we’d ‘never be unprepared again’. Yet, the pandemic’s wake revealed crumbling health systems, lax surveillance, misinformation issues, healthcare inequities – and it seems that many of these lessons have not yet been fully grasped in a handful of African nations…
Imagine visiting a medical facility for a common urinary tract infection, an infection treatable for years, only to be informed that the antibiotic which are usually prescribed no longer work effectively. No dramatisation, no alarmist escalation, just a quiet clinical statement that the drug cannot help. This is not the stuff of futuristic dystopias, but…
