KOLKATA : In a bid to reduce harmful effect of pollution on health, the Indian Medical Association has decided to conduct various mass awareness programmes in the city. Stressing on the need of such campaigns, Mrs Urmilla Khanna, president of Indian Medical Association said: "Pollution affects major human organs of the body and unless we are aware and take precautionary measures, the risk will keep on increasing in future.'

The move by the Indian Medical Association (IMA) of endorsing Tropicana juices and Quaker Oats has invited widespread criticism. Calling it an issue of ethics, Sunita Narain of the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) said, "We are clear that it's completely wrong. In fact it's legally wrong. The Prevention of Food Adulteration (PFA) Act clearly says that no medical association can endorse a product. There is an issue of ethics here, doctors' associations all over the world have always been resisting to get into such endorsements. How can Pepsi ask IMA about it."

Mobile Medical Teams (MMT) launched by the army and the state government under Border Area Development Programme (BADP) as a part of the comprehensive approach to the border management with focus on socio-economic development including healthcare of remote and inaccessible areas has almost proved to be a failure in Kashmir.

Many cities in India, including in Delhi, Mumbai, Hyderabad and Bangalore, have oxygen bars since 1998. More bars are coming up, mostly targeting rich customers. They offer hyperbaric oxygen therapy

Public healthcare is not in the pink; it is deteriorating. In fact, it has been on a serious "decline' during the last two to three decades.