MEDIA

Vaccine hesitancy has a long history. Initially, vaccines were opposed on religious grounds, viewed as interference with divine will. Later, in liberal societies, they were resisted as infringements on personal freedom, especially when made mandatory. In modern times, the anti-vaccine movement gained steam from 1998 through a widely publicised study by Dr. Andrew Wakefield that falsely linked t...

In the aftermath of the Pahalgam massacre, Pakistan’s Defence Minister Khawaja Asif delivered a statement loaded with strategic signaling. He accused the United States & the United Kingdom of playing a very negative role, charging them with promoting terrorism through Pakistan and hobnobbing with terrorists for three decades. Through this broadside, Islamabad signaled a sharp pivot: retaliat...

From the moment he chose the name “Francis,” it was clear that this pope would be different. His inspiration was St. Francis of Assisi— a truly noble 13th-century saint, who is often seen as the first ecological thinker who underscored the need to live in harmony with our environment. Pope Francis carried forward that spirit, emerging as a firm advocate for the climate agenda. He supported the...

On January 20, 2025, President Donald Trump began his second term. He has since issued over 50 directives that have already begun reshaping economic, ethical, and social landscapes. As we analyze these directives, it is important to understand their consequences through historical parallels and philosophical perspectives. To that end, I draw on the insights of David Ricardo and Alexis de Tocquevil...

McKinsey’s MECE (Mutually Exclusive and Collectively Exhaustive) Framework has been used for structured thinking & communication by leading consultants, marketing professionals, journalists and other peer groups for five decades. The concept of MECE was brought into the world by Barbara Minto, who worked at McKinsey in the 1960s and 1970s. She was the first female MBA that McKinsey hired. (Than...

Like every year before the budget the Finance Minister is besieged with diametrically opposite demands from different segments of the industry. For example, the indigenous manufacturers ask for custom duty increases and the transnationals asks for its reduction. How will she decide? Frankly, it is not easy. Why? Because there is a lot of rhetoric and it is difficult to distinguish rhetori...

Levitt and Dubner in their book Freakonomics quote a medical study which found that obstetricians in areas with declining birth rates are much more likely to perform cesarean section deliveries than obstetricians in growing areas – suggesting that when incomes start falling doctors try to ring up more expensive procedures. This is an example of a treatment bias. Is it possible that the stent...

Throughout history there have been many instances of governments wanting to control prices. In most of these instances, the often-well-intentioned price control has inadvertently hurt access or at least brought down the quality of the sector. The attempt to control prices of medical services is not new. It dates back to several millennia. The first medical technology was Religion. Beca...

In an exclusive interview with Arunima Rajan, Pavan Choudary, Chairman of the Medical Technology Association of India (MTaI), discusses the pricing framework for medical devices, shedding light on its critical aspects and implications for the industry. What are the key considerations or factors that the NPPA should take into account while developing the new pricing framework for medical devices?...

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