Counterview

By Aditya Sharma*  Dr P K Gupta's recent article ( The 'Dr' debate masks a larger crisis in allied-health education , Counterview , 1 August 2026)  on the use of the "Dr" prefix by physiotherapists reads, on its surface, as a balanced take on a genuinely difficult question. But a closer look shows that it revives a set of arguments that were put before Parliament during the drafting of the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 (NCAHP Act) — and that Parliament's own Standing Committee considered and rejected. This response draws on the Committee's 117th Report and the text of the Act itself to lay out why.

By A Representative   The Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) has proposed a red hexagonal warning label for packaged foods high in sugar, salt and saturated fat, following a series of directions from the Supreme Court. While the move could mark an important step towards helping consumers identify unhealthy packaged foods, public-health advocates say the proposal contains five significant loopholes that could substantially weaken its impact.

By Dr P K Gupta*  India’s allied-health professions have long operated in a fragmented landscape of universities, hospitals, State authorities and private institutions, each with its own nomenclature, curriculum and standards. The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions Act, 2021 was meant to correct this by creating a unified national framework for education, professional regulation and institutional recognition. Few dispute the need for such oversight. The real question is whether standardisation is quietly becoming synonymous with longer courses, additional internships and new professional titles—changes that risk masking deeper gaps in clinical training, institutional capacity and affordability.

By Chintan Dave   India’s healthcare AI story is entering a more consequential phase. The question is no longer whether artificial intelligence can read a medical image, summarize a clinical history, flag an unusual insurance claim or help a doctor make sense of complex information. We increasingly know that it can. The harder question is whether India can turn these capabilities into a trusted, governed and scalable part of healthcare delivery for more than a billion people.

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  In today's times, there are certain issues that are constantly talked about and discussed, yet no visible impact seems to be made. Beyond water, soil, and pollution, one crisis that continues to be overlooked is waste. Like other life-threatening problems, waste too is gradually moving toward burying and obliterating us. After the Kanwar Yatra in Haridwar, approximately 8,000 tonnes of waste were left behind on the riverbanks, including bottles filled with urine. 

By Bharat Dogra  Children’s Health Defense (CHD), a U.S.-based advocacy group recognized for its longstanding work on child safety, issued an advisory on August 11, 2026, highlighting the risks schoolchildren face from wireless technology . Though focused on the U.S., the advisory carries relevance for other nations, including India. The CHD statement warns: “Wi-Fi routers stay on in every classroom, often all day, whether or not they're in active use. Tablets and laptops sit in laps and against small bodies for hours each day. And in a growing number of districts, cell towers and 5G antennas have been installed on or near school property — sometimes without notifying parents or conducting any real health review. Most parents have never been asked for consent. Most don't even know wireless radiation has harmful impacts on children’s health.”

By Martin Macwan*  In alcohol-prohibited Gujarat, which holds India’s only Mahatma Mandir—built at a cost of ₹215 crore and spread over 34 acres—‘liquor-hooch’ is nothing surprising. The cost of Mahatma Mandir does not include the land price; according to current market rates, the land alone can be valued between ₹600 and ₹1,500 crore. If one-bedroom flats were built on the site while observing all regulations applicable to a 15-storey tower, around 13,000 slum dwellers could be housed there.

By A Representative   In a landmark order, the Supreme Court of India has issued a comprehensive and unambiguous directive to the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI) to implement front-of-pack warning labels on junk food within two weeks. The bench, led by Justice J.B. Pardiwala, rejected FSSAI’s argument that India cannot match international standards, asking pointedly: “Should India remain an underdeveloped country?” The Court further stated: “The world should know that India is very much concerned about the overall health of its citizens, more particularly the growing children.”

By Bhar Dogra    In the implementation of welfare programs, one principle that should command universal consensus—and be applied without exception—is that the poorest households must not face any reduction in their benefits or entitlements. Reform can be undertaken without reduction, and reform can even include increases, but no change should result in diminished entitlements for the most vulnerable. Guided by this principle, I appeal to the Government of India to withdraw a proposed amendment to the National Food Security Act. If implemented, this amendment could significantly reduce the existing food entitlements of nearly ten million of India’s poorest households—specifically those with 1 to 4 members.

By Tulsi Patel*  The increasing trend of having a single child , or at most two children per couple, is on the rise in India today. Though Indian society is pronatalist and having children is widely viewed as an obligatory rite of passage for married couples, why do they want fewer children?

By Raj Kumar Sinha*  There was a time when farming was governed simply by the rhythm of the seasons—sowing, tilling, and harvesting. Today, Indian farmers are forced to navigate the labyrinth of complex legal volumes. The reason? The aggressive encroachment of multinational corporations into agriculture. Take, for instance, PepsiCo—a company reaping immense profits turning potatoes into chips—which legally locked down a proprietary potato variety for its supply chain. How are ordinary farmers supposed to survive this corporate maze?

By Rajiv Shah  A new report released by the World Bank has delivered a sobering assessment of global human capital development , finding that progress has stalled or reversed across much of the developing world. The report, Building Human Capital Where It Matters , quantifies how deficits in nutrition, learning, and employment can erase 51% of future earnings in low- and middle-income countries , while exposing stark inequities rooted in the settings where people live, learn, and work.

Counterview News   A new World Bank report , Building Human Capital Where It Matters , has revealed that India's human capital deficits are entrenched across homes, neighborhoods, and workplaces, with maternal education creating lifelong skill gaps, rural health quality varying by 46 percentage points between villages, and self-employed workers earning barely half the returns to experience of their salaried peers. In fact, India features prominently in the World Bank's latest human capital assessment, and the picture is sobering. 

By A Representative   In a landmark hearing held on 13 August 2026, the Supreme Court of India strongly criticized the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India ( FSSAI ) for failing to implement its 10 February 2026 direction on front-of-pack warning labels for junk food.

By Dr. P.K. Gupta*  Around 4000 BC, in the pre-Harappan period, the Assyrian story of Etana — a king aided by an eagle and cursed by a serpent — features a goddess of fertility. It survives in cuneiform tablets from the Library of Ashurbanipal, now held in Britain. In the tale, the goddess grants Etana a potion so he can father a son — a myth often cited as marking a symbolic shift from matriarchal to patriarchal social structures.

By A Representative   The People’s Training & Research Center (PTRC), a Vadodara-based NGO that has worked on occupational health for over three decades, has released its annual report for 2025-26, documenting both significant legal breakthroughs and the persistent struggles of workers afflicted by silicosis in Gujarat’s ceramic and mining hubs.

By A Representative   A group of leading health professionals, medical scientists, and public health experts has written to Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda, demanding immediate implementation of a watershed ban on junk food advertising and the introduction of mandatory front-of-pack warning labels, warning that India can no longer afford delays in addressing its escalating diet-related non-communicable disease (NCD) crisis. 

By A Representative   India's urban bus transport system is in a state of crisis, with more than 400 cities having no organised bus service at all, according to a new study by the Centre for Science and Environment (CSE) and CITIES Forum released on August 10, 2026. The study, titled "The Economics of Bus Transformations: A Roadmap for Viksit Bharat 2047," warns that the country needs an investment of Rs 14.2 lakh crore, or roughly 165 billion dollars, over the next two decades to fix the sector.

By Dr. Gurinder Kaur*  According to a report released in July 2026 by the Climate Central Institute of the United States , rising global average temperatures are now directly affecting human health. Adequate sleep is one of the fundamental pillars of good health, and the report highlights a troubling trend: as average temperatures rise, both daytime and nighttime temperatures are increasing. With rising night temperatures, millions of people across the world are struggling to fall and stay asleep. 

Counterview News    A recent New York Times  opinion piece  titled "This Teen Took on a $10 Trillion Industry. We Might All Be Healthier Because of Him", by Julia Belluz, co-author of "Food Intelligence," has highlighted what a senior expert believes is a pivotal moment in the struggle for a healthier food environment . The article focuses on the case of Bryce Martinez , a 20-year-old who developed Type 2 diabetes and fatty liver disease at age 16. Martinez filed a personal injury lawsuit against 11 major food manufacturers, including Kraft Heinz, Coca-Cola, PepsiCo, and Nestlé, alleging that their ultra-processed products caused his chronic illnesses.