India sets target of building 5.2 million toilets by end of August

My article in British Medical Journal, where the director of the Nirmal Bharat Abhiyan said the 5.2 million target was an enhanced one, because they had added an buffer for any shortfall. 

To prescribe or not to prescribe

India's drug regulator, the Central Drug Standards Control Organization, operates with a skeletal staff and laxer regulations than the American Food and Drug Administration. This could explain why so many Indian generics makers are facing restrictions on exporting to the USA, but continue to manufacture drugs with no bar in India. 

This does not necessarily mean all Indian drugs are unsafe. What it does mean is that the risk of adulteration and poor quality is higher, but will often go undetected. 

Click here to read my article on the subject in Forbes India: http://forbesindia.com/article/real-issue/doctors-dilemma-to-prescribe-or-not-to-prescribe/38132/1

Can obesity be healthy? And can we tell when it's harmful?

A new study published in Cell Journal has identified an enzyme called heme-oxygenase-1 (it degrades heme, a component of hemoglobin in the body), which may be a significant cause of obesity-related metabolic disease.

All of us know people who are obese, and yet healthy. They may be small in number, but they have none of the signs of metabolic disease (high blood sugar, cholesterol or BP) which affect overweight people so often.

What protects this people? Is there some factor, in addition to obesity, that leads to metabolic disease. The authors of the Cell Study believe this factor could be HO-1.

To know more, read my article in Science Magazine.
http://news.sciencemag.org/biology/2014/07/can-you-be-obese-and-still-be-healthy?rss=1