Young medicos keep hearts in rural Gujarat beating

Young medicos keep hearts in rural Gujarat beating

Start Drive To Equip PHCs With Digital ECG Units

Prashant.Rupera@timesgroup.com

Vadodara/Anand:  15.08.2021

A 42-yearold patient who was attending a screening camp at Bamangaam Primary Health Centre (PHC) in Anklav taluka in Anand district had no idea that he was suffering from chest pain and breathlessness due to a life-threatening heart attack. The patient was immediately rushed for cardiac treatment at GMERS Medical College and Hospital at Gotri in Vadodara.

Patients like him are getting much needed help through a project — CardioGram — that aims at improving cardiovascular healthcare delivery at rural PHCs across the country.

A group of young interns and junior doctors have started the pilot project in Anand which will be showcased as a model district before it is scaled up to state and national level where each PHC is equipped with digital electrocardiogram (ECG) machines.

After installing the first digital ECG machine at Bamangaam PHC in Anklav taluka, the group is set to equip three other PHCs in Anand and two in New Delhi with digital ECG machines next month.

“Our target is to install 250 digital ECG machines in five states including Gujarat, Maharashtra, Delhi, Karnataka and Assam within the next six months,” said Dr Priyansh Shah, founder and president of World Youth Heart Federation (WYHF) — a youth led non-profit social enterprise that has launched the project.

“After establishing the model district of Anand, we will expand to over 24,000 rural PHCs of the country. Gujarat itself has1,500 rural PHCs which will be the next milestone,” he said.

Like Priyansh, Dr Adnan Vohra and Dr Nidhi Shah — all intern doctors at state-run SSG Hospital in Vadodara are volunteering for the project with a team comprising Dr Pankti Shah, Dr Harshraj Vaghela, Dr Priyal Thakkar, Dr Keshav Shah, Dr Smit Shah, Dr Devarsh Shah and Dr Dhrumil Patil.

Nationally, the group has 600 volunteers of interns and junior doctors in 58 cities. Initially, the group is using its own funds but plans to scale up the initiative with a hyper-local model involving local businessmen and community leaders.

WYHF has already trained healthcare workers at three PHCs and one community health centre in Anklav. “It was during the screening camp at Bamangaam during which we found that six patients out of 71 needed treatment at higher centres. Three of the six patients were asymptomatic. It was only because of the digital ECGs that the problem was identified,” Shah added.

Deployment of ECG machines at PHC will help in diagnosing many more such cases and in turn save thousands of lives, he said. Companies manufacturing digital ECG machines have their own mobile applications through which sending digital ECGs to cardiologists becomes easy.

The only man whose photo hangs inside the Lok Sabha

PEOPLE WHO SHAPED PARLIAMENT

The only man whose photo hangs inside the Lok Sabha

Chakshu Roy

15.08.2021

In August of 1925, there was excitement in Simla. Members of the legislative assembly were in town to participate in the session of the national legislature. The session’s highlight was the election for the presiding officer of the assembly. The Government of India Act of 1919 had set up the 141-member assembly and appointed its first presiding officer (the President which is the equivalent of the modernday Speaker) for a four-year term. For the first time, there was going to be an election for the position of President.

The candidate opposing the government nominee was Vithalbhai Jhaverbhai Patel, the elder brother of Vallabhbhai Patel. He was a lawyer who had frustrated the government with his interventions in provincial and national legislatures. In a closely contested election, Vithalbhai won with a margin of two votes a month before his 52nd birthday. Over the next five years, he would lay the foundation on which legislatures in India would function and flourish after independence.

When he assumed office, President Patel continued wearing his usual dress of khadi and dhoti. His biographer recounts that he went ahead with the parliamentary tradition of wearing a wig and a robe but made of khadi. His robe was fashioned out of a black khadi silk saree presented by Sarojini Naidu. The first task before Vithalbhai was to secure respect for the office of the presiding officer.

The prevailing tradition was that when the Viceroy came to deliver his annual address to the legislature, the presiding officer vacated the chair and sat with the assembly members. The implication being that even in the legislature, the Viceroy was supreme. Vithalbhai put an end to this practice, and at the following annual address, he conducted the Viceroy to a dais and kept his chair.

He also ensured that assembly members had an adequate opportunity to hold the government to account. In his five-year tenure, he allowed discussion of 20-plus adjournment motions. He would also brook no disrespect of the legislature. When the Commander in Chief was absent from the House during a debate on his speech, Vithalbhai observed that it was highly discourteous to the House, prompting the commander to explain his absence to Vithalbhai.

In the President’s chair, Vithalbhai was unbiased and upheld parliamentary conventions. His ruling on the government’s repressive Public Safety bill (which gave the government power to detain suspects without trial) is one such example. When the first bill came up in the assembly, there was an equality of votes. President Patel had the casting vote, and he exercised it to defeat the bill. He followed the parliamentary tradition that the presiding officer vote to favour the status quo.

Smarting from the defeat, the government again brought the bill to the assembly. This time a member objected that the government had filed cases against 31 individuals and discussing cases pending before the court was not permissible under the rules. Vithalbhai ruled that discussion on the bill would violate the sub judice rule, and he could not allow such a violation. The venue for these discussions was the current Lok Sabha chamber.

Bhagat Singh expressed public resentment about this bill by throwing two bombs from the visitor’s gallery into the assembly chamber. After this incident, without consulting President Patel, the government made security arrangements in the assembly complex. Vithalbhai believed that whatever happened in the precincts of the assembly should be done with the approval of the presiding officer.

The deadlock and subsequent conversations on this issue between President Patel and the Viceroy led to the Watch and Ward service, which transformed into the Parliament Security Service. Vithalbhai was also instrumental in setting up the independent parliamentary secretariat. He believed that an independent and impartial administration responsible to the presiding officer was a requirement for the functioning of the legislature.

When Vithalbhai became the president of the central assembly, he declared, “From this moment I cease to be a party man. I belong to no party. I belong to all parties.” His is the only portrait that adorns the Lok Sabha chamber facing the chair of the Speaker. His presence should constantly remind our parliamentarians about their responsibility to the constitution and people.

Roy is head of outreach PRS Legislative Research

From this moment on, I belong to no party. I belong to all parties

— VITHALBHAI PATEL

After being elected first president of the central legislative assembly

Most docs with disabilities denied seats in AIIMS

Most docs with disabilities denied seats in AIIMS

Handful Who’ve Got Admission Were Mostly Given Non-clinical Subjects Which Have Few Takers

Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com

15.08.2021

Year after year, the bulk of MBBS doctors with disabilities who clear the post graduate entrance exam for seven All India Institutes of Medical Sciences including the one in Delhi are denied admission. Barely 0.4% of seats over the last three years have been given to them despite the disability rights law of 2016 stipulating a 5% reservation.

Even the handful who have got admission were mostly given non-clinical subjects which have few takers. Out of over 4,000 PG seats in the various AIIMS from 2018 onwards, 200 should have gone to those with disabilities if the 5% quota was implemented. Instead, 17 have been given to them.

From 2021 onwards, the combined entrance exam, Institutes of National Importance Common Entrance Test (INICET) is also for admission to PGI Chandigarh, Jipmer Pondicherry and Nimhans Bangalore.

The seat matrix for January 2021 INCET shows that 27 seats were reserved for persons with disabilities out of a total of 684 PG seats in all seven AIIMS combined, barely 4%. Though 38 doctors with disabilities are shown in the list of candidates who qualified, not a single one was allotted a seat. In the July 2021 INICET, out of 536 PG seats in all the AIIMS, 26 have been reserved for doctors with disabilities but in the mock round of allotment, not a single seat has been allotted. The results of the next round will be out on August 16 and the remaining rounds will be completed within 30 days after that.

“As per current data, a total of 35 persons with benchmark disabilities (PWBD) candidates have qualified for seat allocation. Seventeen out of 31 opted for AIIMS as first preference and 15 opted for AIIMS as second preference. In the mock round, the choices filled by the candidates were not available at AIIMS and hence no seat was allocated at AIIMS. This may change in the subsequent rounds,” said Dr Randeep Guleria, director of AIIMS, Delhi. However, a candidate with disability said that usually, there wasn’t much change from the mock allotment.

Dr Guleria added that allotment depended on the order of merit of the candidates and preferences filled by them and that they were allocated the highest available seat from among their preferences according to order of merit.

“Unlike seats reserved for OBC, SC and ST, which are shown branch or specialty wise in the seat matrix issued, for doctors with disabilities, they just give the total number of seats without a break up of which specialties these seats are available in. So, candidates with disabilities are forced to choose blindly not knowing what specialties are open to them. This is the reason for such a huge number of candidates being rejected on the basis of FCNA or filled choice not available,” said a doctor with disability.

Full report on www.toi.in

Out of over 4,000 PG seats in the various AIIMS from 2018 onwards, 200 should have gone to those with disabilities if the 5% quota was implemented. Instead, 17 have been given to them

Chargesheet against Siva Sankar Baba 350 pages long

Chargesheet against Siva Sankar Baba 350 pages long

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Chennai:15.08.2021

The CB-CID on Friday filed a 350-page chargesheet in the Chengalpet court against Siva Sankar Baba, the founder of Kelambakkam-based Sushil Hari International school arrested in June for sexually assaulting several students. Three other teachers of the institution were arrested in the same case.

Police have included evidence of at least 30 students in the chargesheet that was filed on the 59th day, when the remand period for Siva Sankar Baba ended. A copy of the chargesheet is set to be issued to Siva Sankar Baba when he is produced before the magistrate on Monday. The trial is expected to begin soon.

The Mamallapuram allwomen police, based on three complaints, booked Siva Sankar Baba on June12 and the case was transferred to the CB-CID on June 13. Police arrested Baba from a lodge at Chittaranjan Park in Delhi on June16. Even as he was in judicial remand, two more Pocso cases were slapped against him in July and the first week of August. While his bail pleas were repeatedly rejected, he approached the Madras high court seeking intervention.

Paddy seed sharing fest in Tiruvarur

Paddy seed sharing fest in Tiruvarur

TIMES NEWS NETWORK

15.08.2021

A day-long seed sharing festival was organised by “save our rice campaign” at Tiruvarur on Saturday as part of the annual traditional paddy festival. Farmers were provided with free seeds of native paddy breeds. The festival was not held due to the pandemic last year. Presiding over the event, professor P Duraisingam, chairman of Create (Consumer, Research, Education, Action, Training and Empowerment) – save our rice campaign, said paddy festivals played an important role in retrieving indigenous varieties. “Mappillai Samba and Karuppu Kouni traditional paddy breeds have high medicinal value and are resistant to pests and diseases too. This has encouraged many to cultivate the varieties though the yield is a little less compared to other breeds,” Duraisingam added.

BY INVITATION

Why the govt shouldn’t decide what you pay for an air ticket

PRANAY KOTASTHANE

15.08.2021

Have you tried booking domestic flights recently? If yes, you would have noticed a strange and unpleasant phenomenon. Not only are the ticket prices high across the board, but all airlines seem to be charging the same high price.

You would have shrugged this occurrence off by blaming the government for raising taxes on fuel, and shelled out the ticket money anyway. Well, you are halfright. Indeed a government policy underlies the high ticket prices but it’s not the one you think. Turns out, a few restrictions that the Ministry of Civil Aviation had imposed since May last year, are still in place. These restrictions are playing havoc with the consumers, airlines, and airports. Here’s how.

Airline ticket prices in normal circumstances are determined by demand and supply considerations. The price broadly reflects the scarcity of the seat you occupy. That’s why you would have encountered significantly higher prices closer to the travel date when fewer seats are available. This pricing situation changed in the wake of the first wave of Covid when the Union government started intervening in both the pricing and capacity of airlines. Specifically, the government put three restrictions in place.

One, it puts a cap on the total capacity that airlines can deploy. Note, this didn’t mean a restriction on the number of passengers in a flight but a restriction in terms of the total number of flights that an airline can operate. Initially, in May 2020, airlines were allowed to operate only up to 33% of their total pre-pandemic flights. This restriction stands at 72.5% as of today. The stated intent of this capacity restriction was to discourage discretionary travel.

Two, the Ministry of Civil Aviation imposed a maximum and minimum ceiling on the ticket price depending on sector and travel time. This was apparently done to protect consumer interest so that airlines don’t overcharge to compensate for capacity restrictions.

This is where it gets even more interesting. The ministry has also imposed a floor on the ticket price meaning that tickets can’t be sold below a particular price, even if the airlines wished to do so! The stated intent of this restriction is to protect financially weaker and smaller airlines.

Now let’s try to anticipate the unintended consequences of this bizarre policy. What began as a Covid-19 emergency measure to discourage travel has taken the shape of a hydra-headed policy aiming to solve many problems at the same time.

An unintended consequence of government intervention that public policy analysts watch out for is rent-seeking. Rent-seekers often distort government policies to serve their interests. And that’s what seems to be the real reason behind these three-fold restrictions. The capacity restrictions and price floors appear to be a clientelist policy to clip the wings of the larger players in the market and give breathing space to the financially weaker airlines.

Next, public policy analysis differentiates probusiness policies from pro-market ones. The former means aiding specific companies while the latter means ensuring fair competition. Intervening in the pricing structure and operational capacity of a sector is clearly a pro-business, anti-market policy. We should be worried for three reasons.

First, the direct cost is being borne by the consumer — ticket prices of most airlines have conveniently settled to just below the price ceiling regardless of how early you book your tickets. Moreover, these restrictions are sure to further damage the fiscal position of Air India, which already incurs nearly Rs 20 crore loss per day. In the end, it’s all of us who will end up shouldering this burden in the form of higher taxes. Second, these restrictions have established a precedent for the government to intervene in the interests of “financially weaker” players, even at the expense of the consumer. Today, the government wants to protect weaker airlines; tomorrow it might extend its “protection” to weaker players in other sectors.

Three, these restrictions are preventing an already beleaguered sector from bouncing back. Not just airlines but airports are also facing higher losses due to lower footfalls. Airport Council International, a global trade body, calculated a $129 billion loss in 2020 and an estimated $108 billion loss in 2021. There are job losses across the globe in this sector. In an already dire situation, government restrictions are further depressing the recovery of the air travel sector in India.

Going ahead, the government’s primary responsibility should only be to ensure that airlines and airports don’t cause further spread of the virus. Given the wider availability of testing and vaccination, this goal can be achieved by mandating Covid-19 detection test results and fully vaccinated certificates for air travel. Price bands and capacity caps do not serve this purpose. These restrictions should be rolled back right away.

Kotasthane is deputy director at the Takshashila Institution. Views are personal.

UGC grants Balaji Vidyapeeth in Pondy new status

UGC grants Balaji Vidyapeeth in Pondy new status

Puducherry:  15.08.2021

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has granted ‘12 B’ status of the UGC Act, 1956, to Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth, a deemed university in the Union territory of Puducherry. The status is mandatory for any institution to receive funds from the Centre and major funding agencies. “Sri Balaji Vidyapeeth will be now able to receive central grants in pursuit of excellence in research in fundamental and translational health sciences," university vice-chancellor S C Parija. TNN