The Crocin you buy from your local drugstore at 80-90 paise per tablet costs just 15 paise to make. Dr Anant Phadke delves into the various forms of profiteering in the pharmaceutical sector and suggests ways to oppose it There are a number of reasons why the prices of drugs in India , indeed all over the world, are so high. One of them is the business of branding. Most drugs come with a brand name attached. Paracetamol, for example, is the physical name, or generic name, for a painkill...

On a search for its Woman of the Year, the Goan newspaper Gomantak Times came across the extraordinary Sashikala Govekar, a fisherwoman who breathes life into Mapusa market, and a sarpanch who is much respected in Nerul She is a mother, a sister, a professional, a provider, a fighter, a struggler, a realist, a radical, a performer, a perfectionist, a lady, a life-giver and a sarpanch. Above all, Sashikala Govekar is a fisherwoman from Mapusa, Goa . Three months ago, on Internatio...

The environment and its management is a major part of Bhutan’s development plan, and one of the four pillars of Gross National Happiness. Bhutanese law requires 60% of the country to remain forested for all time. Already, over a quarter of Bhutan’s land has been set aside in the form of protected areas Gross National Happiness (GNH) as an alternative to GDP is the only example I know of a country's development path being decided by that country alone. Not by the World Bank, the ...

A well-loved monarch who is constantly trying to push power away from himself, governance that is simultaneously secular and Buddhist…Manoj Nadkarni finds his cynicism about Gross National Happiness rapidly eroding as he continues his travels through Bhutan In spite of the now common criticism of Gross Domestic Product (GDP) as a measure of a country's development, it has been difficult to come up with an alternative. A useful measurement commonly used these days is the Human Development...

The ban on dance bars in Mumbai is ostensibly to protect youth from the sexualised environment of the bars. Instead of keeping the shadows and silences around sexuality intact, we need a rights-based approach to young people’s sexuality, giving them the right to information that has a direct bearing on their health and well-being “When these girls wear skimpy clothes and leave home, why don't the elders of the house object? Why don't they correct the misunderstanding that being mo...

The state government has embarked on a campaign to rid Mumbai of obscenity. The dance bars which employ 75,000 women, are amongst the targets. But is this just about dance bars or about the increasingly strident notions of purity and pollution, and about fundamentalism using the bodies of women as their locus of control? Don't use your right hand for that. You must always use your left hand for this. Don't point your feet at the books. Don't go to the temple on ‘those days of the...

The tsunami has also dredged up caste, class and livelihood tussles that must be dealt with in the process of rehabilitation. In Bommiyarpalyam village in Villupuram district of Tamil Nadu, it’s the fisherfolk versus the upper-caste Vanniyars versus the dalits It is a warm day in the third week of April in the Bommiyarpalyam village of Villupuram district in Tamil Nadu. A colourful ceremony is taking place on the sands near the sea. A ‘goddess child’ dances frenetically and then a ...