Thatched House

Before Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presented the Union Budget for the fiscal year 2014-15; Dipankar Gupta wrote an article in Times of India called ‘get well first, get wealthy next’ . He appealed for Healthcare to be taken as a priority by the new Central Government and be given the status of an Industry.  Soon after, the Union Budget was presented and it evoked mixed response from commentators. The government plans to provide free drugs and free diagnostics. Other key features of the budget include expansion of insurance coverage through FDI; setting up of AIIMS-like institutions, drug testing laboratories, rural health research centres; and increased excise duty on cigarettes. The increase in taxation of tobacco products is a welcome move and so are the new proposals. However, budget allocation did not measure up to the planned initiatives. As per Economic Survey 2013-14, only 1.4% of the GDP is spent on healthcare which is among the lowest in the world. The n...

Pic: Pfutsero, July, 2011 Bus ride After owning a car, I hardly travel by public bus anymore. So, on those now rare occasions when I take the minibus in Kohima, it feels a bit strange. Why should I feel this way? There is someone on the phone; some students come in uniform; some are dead silent and seem lost in their thought. Some are playing with their phones while some are listening to whatever they are playing on their headphones. Still there are those people who seem to have met after a long time and are catching up with the stories of each other.  The bus conductor comes and some people stretch out their hands to pay the fare for their friends. When some passenger wants to stop before reaching the actual bus stand, they’d say out loud, ‘side’.  But when I drive alone, I am detached from this experience. I am in a way detached from the society that I live in. All these people in the bus, we share a common space and time. We all have our own lives and go abo...