000-tobecategorised

MP plans to hand over 10 trauma centres, 13 path labs to private players https://www.hindustantimes.com/cities/bhopal-news/madhya-pradesh-government-to-hand-over-trauma-and-pathology-centres-to-private-players-to-improve-health-services-101689670901339.html Shruti Tomar Jul 18, 2023

A second official of the medical education department said the state government will hand over 5,000 to 8,000 square feet of space along with equipment and machines of pathology, microbiology and virology labs of the 13 medical government colleges to private partners.

“The government will bear the expenses of the doctor, lab technician as well as their maintenance. The company will decide the rate of tests accordingly,” the official said 

Jan Swasthya Abhiyan (JSA), a non profit working in the field of health, said handing over pathology and trauma centres will not improve public health facilities but lead to deterioration.

“This whole structure and arrangement will directly benefit the private company and this type of contract will only harm the public. According to the information, it is possible the test rates will go up by 200% to 700%. Along with this, the government is also talking about increasing the participation of private health service providers in public health institutions in the second and third-tier cities of the state,” said JSA convenor Amulya Nidhi

The problems with the Data Protection Bill  https://www.thehindu.com/opinion/op-ed/the-problems-with-the-data-protection-bill/article66531928.ece February 21, 2023 Anjali Bhardwaj,Amrita Johri
The Bill must be put through a process of rigorous pre-legislative consultation and redrafted before it makes its way to Parliament

First, the Bill seeks to dilute the provisions of the Right to Information (RTI) Act, which has empowered citizens to access information and hold governments accountable.801j - "information which cannot be denied to parliament,, shall not be denied to any person.. Based on the incorrect understanding as being applicable only to privacy exemption, this orvision is sought to be deleted. But the Shah Report has said "privacy Act should clarify that  publication of personal data for public interest .. should not be constitute infringement of Privacy...

Third given that government is the biggest data repository, .. the oversight body should be adequately independent to act on violation of the law by government entitites...

finally, the bill stipulates that the Data Protection Board should be digital by design.. this when 33% women have never used the internet..

Writes Thomas Franco remembering the Bank Nationalisation Day, in Random Reflections this week.
https://www.cenfa.org/nationalisation-of-banks-was-a-historical-achievement-and-it-has-to-be-saved/

Some media articles are lauding the Modi Govt for its turnaround of the public sector banks! Credit is being given to the present government for absolute success in NPAs, profit, growth in credit and resistance to external shocks. Yet, as of March 2023, the banks have accumulated 15,324 corporate loans with outstanding above Rs. 71,12,765 crore. This is the real achievement of the Modi government!

Though the government announced two years ago that it is going to privatise two public sector banks, it could not privatise even one so far because of the strong opposition from the United Federation of Bank Unions. Yet, using dubious methods, it has succeeded in reducing the strength of PSBs.

Now the RBI has come up with its circular on compromise proposals for wilful defaulters and frauds. Will that save the banks? No! The new cycle will start, and we will see another crisis soon. That means we don’t have a banking success story, either by NDA or UPA.

Notwithstanding the above, the need of the hour is to save PSBs and their character. They have a huge opportunity due to their branch network and customer base. The depositors still have more faith in PSBs as seen from the chart. If every one of them is given a loan, there will be huge growth in advances. For that, the employee’s strength should be at least doubled and outsourcing should stop.