Spain named world’s healthiest country
India Slips One Rank, Trails Lanka, Bangladesh, Nepal

TIMES NEWS NETWORK  26.02.2019

Spain and Italy have grabbed the two top spots in the list of the healthiest countries in the world. In South Asia, Sri Lanka at 66, Bangladesh at 91 and Nepal at 110 continued to rank well above India, out of the 169 countries that were evaluated. India slipped from 119 in the 2017 ranking to 120.

China rose three places to 52nd. Life expectancy in China is on track to surpass the US by 2040, according to the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation, stated the Bloomberg analysis. This was according to the 2019 edition of the Bloomberg Healthiest Country Index which ranked 169 economies according to factors that contribute to overall health, including traditional measures such as mortality by communicable and non-communicable diseases and life expectancy.

US which spends the highest per person on health, $11,000, slipped by one rank to 35 and its life expectancy had been dipping the last three years, while UK which spends $4,000 per person climbed from 23rd rank in 2017 to 19th this time. Cuba too improved it ranking from 31 to 30, well above the US and the only country not classified as “high income” by the World Bank to be ranked that high. The countries that have performed the best are those with universal healthcare where over 70% of healthcare spending is done by the government. These include Iceland, Japan, Switzerland, Sweden, Australia, Singapore and Norway in that order in the top ten.

Japan improved its ranking from 7th to 4th while Singapore, the only other Asian nation in the top ten, dropped sharply from 4th rank to 8th. Spain and Italy spend much less on healthcare (roughly $3500 per person) than many of the European countries and yet managed to top the list. India is estimated to spend barely $240 per person and most of it is spend by people from their own resources with little support from the government.

Pakistan (124), Myanmar

(129) and Afghanistan (153) are the only countries from this region with a lower ranking than India. Sri Lanka, facing increasing privatisation of healthcare and shrinking public spending on health slipped by one rank from 65 to 66. South Korea jumped seven places to 17th. Bangladesh improved its ranking by three spots while Nepal’s rank has remained the same.

At the bottom of the pile are mostly Sub-Saharan African countries, accounting for 27 of the 30 unhealthiest. Haiti, Afghanistan and Yemen were the others. Bloomberg evaluated health variables and risks ranging from those of behavioral nature to environmental characteristics. Final index only included nations with at least 0.3 million population and sufficient data.

Soon, meals in trains to come with barcodes

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi:26.02.2019

Soon, the food packets prepared by Indian Railway Catering and Tourism Corporation (IRCTC) will get barcodes. Passengers can scan the barcode using their mobile phones to see the live footage of the kitchen, where the food was prepared, railway minister Piyush Goyal said on Monday. He added that it would help passengers to decide whether to eat the food or not.

“My ultimate thought is that each food packet will get a barcode. You can scan the barcode using your phone and can see the kitchen. You can see and decide whether you want to eat the food or not. The food packets will mention the kitchen number and the time and date of packing. If the food is bad, you can file a complaint quoting the kitchen number and other details,” Goyal told reporters after launching “raildrishti,” a website aimed at making maximum railway related information and date in public domain.

On asked how soon the initiative will be rolled out, Goyal said they work is underway to get the backend operation in place. Claiming that “raildrishti” will bring total transparency and put information in public domain for scrutiny, Goyal said the focus of Narendra Modi government has been “accountability to people.”

He added that since government has put most of the information in public domain, “perhaps there are hardly any RTI applications” and there is “no scope for RTI.”

The “raildrishti” portal also provides live information about the train status, numbers of housing keeping staff and can key in details for PNR inquiry and complaint inquiry.

The website dashboard will display the number of tickers sold, income generated (per day, per week, per month and per year) from both tickets and freight. Companies and traders can use it for tender inquiry and freight related inquiries. The website dashboard also provides the facility to view live feeds from the cameras installed in various IRCTC base kitchens.

IN THE PIPELINE: One can scan the barcode to see the live footage of the kitchen where the food was prepared

Can’t bar poll candidates for having more than 2 kids: SC

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

New Delhi  26.02.2019

: The Supreme Court on Monday refused to entertain a plea seeking to bar those with more than two children from government jobs and disqualifying them from contesting elections.

A bench of Chief Justice Ranjan Gogoi and Sanjiv Khanna said a constitutional court could not pass such an order and dismissed the plea. The petition was filed by BJP leader Ashwini Kumar Upadhyay pleading the court to intervene and pass order to deal with the menace of population explosion in the country.

“This court has held that the problem of population explosion is a national and global issue for which priority in policy-oriented legislation, wherever needed, is necessary. Legislative measures to check the menace of growing population is valid. A provision that a person who has more than two children is not qualified to hold office in a local authority was, therefore, held to be valid by the apex court,” the petitioner said..

“The two-child norm for contesting local body elections has been adopted by some states like Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, Maharashtra, Odisha, Rajasthan and Haryana, which has yielded very positive results in reducing population growth in those states. Therefore, such norm should be adopted by all the states to implement the population control policy to bring fruitful results,” the petitioner said.

Why not rename MKU as Kamaraj univ, HC asks govt

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Madurai:26.02.2019

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court on Monday sought a response from the state government regarding the removal of the prefix ‘Madurai’ from the Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU), renaming it as Kamaraj University.

A division bench of Justice N Kirubakaran and Justice S S Sundar was hearing a petition from Muthu Subramanian, a resident of Udumalpet in Tirupur district.

In his petition, Subramanian said MKU was originally known as Madurai University in 1978 and the name was changed to Madurai Kamaraj University to honour the former chief minister. The petitioner stated that when the name of the university is written on the name board, the Tamil consonant ‘ik’ is omitted due to which there would be no grammatical relation between the words Madurai and Kamaraj.

Similarly, when the name of the university is translated in English language, the name Kamarajar is reduced to Kamaraj. The petitioner mentioned that when he sent a representation in this regard to the director of Tamil development department, Chennai, in 2016, he received a reply which said the name board of the university should be corrected by adding an ‘ik’ suffix to the ‘Madurai’ in Tamil and to correct the English name of the university to Madurai Kamarajar University.

The petitioner claimed that even though he has submitted several representations to the officials, no steps were taken. Hence, the petitioner prayed before the court seeking for a direction to change the name board with the ‘ik’ suffixed to ‘Madurai’ in Tamil and also change it as Madurai Kamarajar University instead of Madurai Kamaraj University.

Hearing the petition, the judges observed that in an attempt to honour great leaders like Kamaraj, universities in the state are named after the leaders. “Unlike other universities in the state, the name Madurai Kamaraj University is like limiting the relationship of the leader only to Madurai. It would be a great respect to the leader if Madurai is removed from the name of the university,” observed the judges.

Hence, the bench sought the state’s response with regard to changing the name of the university to Kamaraj University instead of Madurai Kamaraj University.

The name Madurai Kamaraj University is like limiting the former CM’s relationship only to Madurai, the court observed

Mad rush: BPL families scamper to apply for ₹2k dole

Devanathan.Veerappan@timesgroup.com

Madurai:26.02.2019

A mad rush has begun to get applications for the special financial assistance of ₹2,000 to be disbursed by the state for families living below poverty line (BPL).

The Madurai Corporation is consolidating the list of families eligible to receive the assistance in its corporation limits. The last time when the corporation conducted such enumeration for BPL families was in 2004. At that time, there were1.19 lakh BPL families in all the four zones. When the corporation officials went to check the present status of the families, they could manage to trace just 30% of them.

For instance, there were around 25,000 BPL families in zone two of Madurai Corporation, but the officials managed to trace only 7,000 families. They are now conducting a door-to-door search for the eligible families. Meanwhile, residents have started running from pillar to post seeking applications due to lack of communication from the corporation on how the eligible families are to be shortlisted.

Syed Ahamed Basha from Yagappa Nagar said, “We do not know how the eligible families are going to be chosen. In our area, a former ruling party councillor is issuing applications. We are confused as to whom we should approach and submit the application.”

Residents said the 2004 enumeration itself was flawed as it was not done professionally. K Thilagar, a former councillor, said the government should have given adequate time to conduct fresh enumeration to find out the real beneficiaries. “In some areas, the ruling partymen have already started influencing the process,” he claimed. An official from the corporation clarified that the BPL families’ present status is being reviewed. He clarified that people can submit applications in ward offices.

PIL seeks to stop scheme before polls

Madurai:

The Madurai bench of the Madras high court has adjourned a case which sought to stop the distribution of ₹2,000 to BPL families in the state till completion of Lok Sabha elections. A Dineshbabu, of Madurai, had filed the petition. The bench adjourned the case after seeking the order copy of a similar petition dismissed recently. TNN

FEAR OF BACKLASH

Parents of HIV+ kid refuse treatment at CMCH

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Tirupur:26.02.2019

Fearing backlash from authorities of Coimbatore Medical College Hospital (CMCH), parents of the twoyear-old child infected with HIV from an unidentified source, sought proper treatment for the toddler in Tirupur district.

The couple, who reside in Palladam taluk in Tirupur, don’t want to take their child to the CMCH again.

“I firmly suspect that the blood transfused to our daughter at CMCH on July 12, 2018, is the source of infection. If the blood was uninfected, why did doctors remove it when not even half of it was transfused,” the 27-year-old father of the victim said.

“After doctors confirmed the HIV infection on February 7, we took up the issue with CMCH dean Dr B Asokan, but he refuted our claims. So, we tried to lodge a complaint with the Race Course police. But police refused to take up the case saying the issue cannot be solved in police station,” he said.

“The doctors were, however, preparing to discharge our child saying the disease could be cured. We urged them to provide treatment at the hospital itself. The baby was given medicines. On February 21, we discontinued the treatment fearing backlash as the issue was escalating. We left the hospital without informing the doctors,” he said.

The powerloom worker, who earns ₹10,000 a month, said, “We do not want to go back to CMCH. All we want is that our daughter be given proper treatment. I am the only breadwinner in my family. The government should help us with the treatment.”

Saying he was aware of the issue, Tirupur collector K S Palanisamy said, “I will direct the village health nurse concerned to keep track of the girl’s health and provide proper treatment.”

Coaches with panoramic view soon for Nilgiri Rly

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:26.02.2019

In a few days, passengers travelling on the Nilgiri Mountain Railway (NMR) — on the UNESCO world heritage site — in Ooty, will be able to enjoy a wider view of the scenic route.

Integral coach factory (ICF) on Sunday despatched four new swankier coaches which will have larger windows that will enable a panoramic view.

The coaches that are currently being used on NMR are more than four decades old and have been refurbished and retrofitted time and again.

For the first time, ICF has taken up the task of designing and developing new age steel-bodied coaches for the NMR railway system.

A total of 15 coaches are being planned to be manufactured by ICF for the NMR. Of these, 12 coaches will make three rakes — each comprising of one first class, two second class seater and one luggage-cum-passenger car formation. The remaining three coaches will be spare coaches, an ICF official said. The first formation of one rake comprising four new stainless steel coaches for the NMR has just been rolled out from ICF and they are now being taken to Mettupalayam by rail.

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