The National Policy on Education of 1968 and 1986 were framed with the objective to foster a national identity and kept in mind the social purpose of education. These features are conspicuously absent from the draft policy of 2016.

Mental health issues remain unreported over most of India. According to the 2017 World Health Organisation (WHO) Report, major or minor mental illnesses requiring expert intervention is 7.5 per cent of India’s population. Also, estimates show that of roughly 60 million people with mental illnesses, about 90 per cent are currently not receiving treatment in India.

In March 2018, the Supreme Court of India in a landmark judgement passed an order legitimising passive euthanasia in India. However, if passive euthanasia through a ‘living will’ is legalised, the courts must engage medical practitioners to also look at providing terminal patients a painless way of passing on.

Rising levels of air pollution are posing a health hazard to people worldwide. In 2016, exposure to ambient PM2.5 caused 1.025 million deaths in India. While a number of policies to combat air pollution exists, improper implementation leaves us gasping for the most basic of human needs—air.

<p>अफ्रीका महाद्वीप के कुछ सबसे पुराने एवं सबसे बड़े बाओबाब पेड़  (Adansonia digitata) खतरनाक दर से मर रहे हैं या गिर रहे हैं। रोमानिया, दक्षिण अफ्रीका एवं संयुक्त राज्य अमेरिका के संयुक्त पर्यावरणीय शोध दल ने 2005 से 2017 के बीच अफ्रीका के 60 से अधिक पेड़ों की तिथि निर्धारित की</p>

The successful prediction of the recent cyclones in the Arabian Sea by Princeton University researchers along with the NOAA using climate models with temperature rise and atmospheric pollutants as variables raises poignant questions over climate change.

Dr Bhoop Singh, Head of Natural Resources Data Management System (NRDMS), under the Department of Science and Technology, Government of India, highlighted the use of spatial technology in geospatial health mapping and the achievements of the project across the country while speaking with Editor, G’nY.

In conversation with Alok Mukhopadhyay, Chairman, Voluntary Health Association of India (VHAI), G’nY brings forth significant concerns in the healthcare system in India, along with prospective strategies.

Accessible and affordable healthcare in the public sector can reduce India’s growing dependence on private institutions. However, at present lopsided and poorly manned governmental facilities leave no alternatives apart from accessing private institutions and incurring a high ‘out-of-pocket’ expenditure in health care.

<p>The last Lok Sabha election of 2014 was the most expensive election in the history of Indian democracy with a cost of Rs 3,426 crores incurred by the national exchequer. This represented an increase by 131 per cent over the expenses incurred in the 2009 Lok Sabha election.</p>