Politics

Ghulam Nabi Azad criticizes Army operations for killing more civilians than terrorists

Ghulam Nabi Azad

Congress leader and former J&K chief minister Ghulam Nabi Azad evoked a lot of backlash nationwide when he said that Army operations in the state have killed more civilians than terrorists, thus paving the way for a strong response from BJP, which accused Congress of trying to bring the morale of the armed forces down.

In a TV interview, Azad also implemented that BJP’s indication of an “all out operations” in J&K was proof that a “massacre” was being planned. BJP said that these comments were unfair to Army personnel who constantly put their lives in danger to protect the civilians of the state.

“They (forces) take action against four terrorists and kill 20 civilians. Their action is more against civilians than terrorists. For instance, they killed 13 civilians in Pulwama and just one terrorist,” Azad said.

Rajya Sabha MP and BJP national media chief Anil Baluni retaliated by saying that, “Rahul Gandhi should take action against leaders like Azad, who are making baseless allegations against the Army without any facts. They (Congress) leaders should target BJP but refrain from making adverse comments against the armed forces.”

“Congress leaders made light comments about the Army chief and are repeatedly raising questions about the armed forces. It is sad that a senior leader like Azad has made such a comment on which Congress party should clarify its stand,” Baluni concluded.

Since BJP pulled out of its alliance with PDP on Tuesday, bringing down the coalition government in J&K, there is increased talk that under governor’s rule, there will be a lot of pressure on security operations and armed forces.

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Business & Finance

Atul Gawande made CEO of Amazon, Berkshire, JPMorgan’s joint healthcare venture

News Desk

Atul Gawande, a leading medical professor who has also criticised his industry’s practices in the past was named as the CEO of Berkshire Hathaway Inc, Amazon.com Inc and JPMorgan Chase & Co’s joint healthcare venture on Wednesday.

This venture will be based out of Boston and will operate free from profit-making incentives, the three companies said in a joint statement.

Berkshire, Amazon and JP Morgan Chase announced in January that they will form a healthcare company with the primary aim of cutting costs for their US employees. The move shook the shares of the healthcare supply chain, including CVS Health and Express Scripts, among others.

Gawande currently practices general and endocrine surgery at Brigham and Women’s Hospital and is a professor at the Harvard TH Chan School of Public Health and Harvard Medical School.

Berkshire Chairman and CEO Warren Buffett, who is working on the venture with Amazon’s Jeff Bezos and JPMorgan’s Jamie Dimon, said all the candidates for the job felt they could deliver better healthcare and contain rising costs of medical expenses.

“Jamie, Jeff and I are confident that we have found in Atul the leader who will get this important job done,” Buffett said in a statement.

Buffett has described US healthcare costs as a “tapeworm” on American businesses, hurting their ability to compete with rivals in other countries. Last month, he said the goal is to challenge the entire healthcare industry, not individual segments.

While there is no assurance the venture will succeed in lowering costs, Buffett said it was well-positioned to try. Amazon, Berkshire and JPMorgan collectively employ more than 1 million people.

“The resistance will be unbelievable, and if we fail, at least we tried,” Buffett said last month.
Amazon’s size and reputation as a disruptor prompted investors to sell shares of companies that might be hurt by the venture.
Several large American employers are getting more deeply involved in managing their workers’ health instead of looking to insurers to do it. Cisco, for instance, last year began offering its employees a plan it negotiated directly with nearby Stanford Health medical system.

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