The Cabinet will take up the proposal for a National Urban Health Mission (NUHM) on Thursday. It will cater to the 37.7 crore urban population and will be a sub-mission of an overarching National Health Mission (NHM) for urban and rural areas.

In a potentially contentious proposal and a shift from NRHM, where public health facilities are the sole service providers, NUHM is proposed to have provisions for public-private partnerships to fill infrastructure gaps.

Some 40 drugs will soon be notified under a new schedule, H1, of Drugs and Cosmetics Act to make it mandatory for chemists to maintain a register of their sales and retain a copy of the prescription. This will be in addition to the schedule H drugs which, too, can't be sold without prescription.

Besides, packs of H1 drugs will carry a prominent warning in red stating that it is dangerous to take these drugs without doctor's prescription. The decision, which Central Drugs and Standards Control Organisation hopes will arrest the rising incidence of resistance to antibiotics in the country, was taken at the 62nd meeting of Drug Technical Advisory Board Wednesday.

Pictorial warnings on cigarette packs continue to sully India’s anti-tobacco efforts on the global arena.

New Delhi A suo motu study on drug pricing by the Ministry of Corporate Affairs has revealed exorbitant profit margins on 21 common drugs manufactured by Indian companies.