Monday, May 30, 2022
Govt withdraws UIDAI’s Aadhaar caution note after flutter
Govt withdraws UIDAI’s Aadhaar caution note after flutter
Pankaj.Doval@timesgroup.com
New Delhi : Aadhaar caught the Centre on the wrong foot over safety concerns after a statement issued by the Bengaluru unit of the Unique Identification Authority of India — the agency that issues the 12-digit unique identity number — created a flutter when it asked people not to share their info with “unlicensed private entities” such as hotels or movie halls as it can be “misused”. As the advisory started creating chatter on social media, the ministry of information technology — the nodal ministry for UIDAI — had to beat a hasty retreat, reassuring there are enough safeguards and protection within the Aadhaar system, and asking people to continue to share the unique ID number, but after exercising “normal prudence”.
“In view of the possibility of the misinterpretation of the press release, the same stands withdrawn with immediate effect,” the IT ministry said, uncharacteristically issuing the clarification on Sunday. Over the last few years, Aadhaar has become the most trusted identity proof with hospitals, hotels and employers insisting on its photocopies, though it is “voluntary”. Most individuals have been sharing photocopies, with some noticing they have been misused in documents. In case of several agencies, devices for biometric authentication were never deployed with UIDAI pushing the use of QR codes embedded in Aadhaar cards. › Safety fears, P 9 The use of Aadhaar photocopies has created safety fears Two days ago, UIDAI Bengaluru office issued a press release under the heading ‘Caution’, asking people to be careful when giving out Aadhaar for certain verification processes. “Do not share (a) photocopy of your Aadhaar with any organization because it can be misused.
Alternatively, please use a masked Aadhaar which displays only the last 4 digits of your Aadhaar number. It can be downloaded from UIDAI’s official website," it said, further adding, "Only those organisations that have obtained a User License from the UIDAI can use Aadhaar for establishing the identity of a person. Unlicensed private entities like hotels or film halls are not permitted to collect or keep copies of Aadhaar card. It is an offence under the Aadhaar Act 2016. If a private entity demands to see your Aadhaar card, or seeks a photocopy of your Aadhaar card, please verify that they have (a) valid User License from the UIDAI."
While Aadhaar has proved to be safe, the use of photocopies has created safety fears. The UIDAI move to first alert citizens about not sharing Aadhar photocopies and then subsequently retract its statement, has kicked off a row with data security experts, former bureaucrats, activists and political leaders 5/30/22, 7:13 AM about:blank about:blank 2/2 hitting out at UIDAI. “In the initial release, the UIDAI admitted to long pending concerns with Aadhaar, which were debated and proven in the court. UIDAI always insisted they have improved Aadhaar’s security by bringing in virtual ID, masked Aadhaar numbers, but has never promoted them enough,” Kodali Srinivas, a data security expert, said.
“This release accepting privacy and security concerns with Aadhaar has been withdrawn again, because the Government doesn’t want people to distrust and stop using Aadhaar.” French security researcher Baptiste Robert, who exposed several Aadhaar leaks in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh, said that four years ago he had warned about the issues with the Aadhaar.
AADHAAR
UIDAI asked public from giving Aadhaar for verification
Most individuals have been sharing the photocopies, with some noticing that they have been misused in their loan and other documents. In case several agencies, devices for biometric authentication were never deployed with UIDAI pushing the use of QR codes embedded in Aadhaar cards. Two days ago, UIDAI’s Bangalore regional office issued a press release under the heading ‘Caution’, asking people to be careful when giving out Aadhaar for certain verification processes.
“Do not share (a) photocopy of your Aadhaar with any organization because it can be misused. Alternatively, please use a masked Aadhaar which displays only the last 4 digits of your Aadhaar number. It can be downloaded from UIDAI’s official website,” it said. UIDAI caution note causes flutter, junked New Delhi : Aadhaar caught the government on the wrong foot over safety concerns after a statement issued by the Bangalore unit of the Unique Identification Authority of India (UIDAI) – the agency that issues the 12-digit unique identity number – created a flutter when it asked people not to share their info with “unlicensed private entities” such as hotels or movie halls as it can be “misused”.
As the advisory started creating chatter on social media, the IT ministry – the nodal ministry for UIDAI – had to beat a hasty retreat, reassuring there are enough safeguards and protection within the Aadhaar system, and asking people to continue to share the unique ID number, but after exercising “normal prudence”. “In view of the possibility of the misinterpretation of the press release, the same stands withdrawn with immediate effect,” the IT ministry said, uncharacteristically issuing the clarification on Sunday. Over the last few years, Aadhaar has become the most trusted identity proof with hospitals, hotels and employers insisting on Aadhaar photocopies, although it is "voluntary".
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Friday, May 27, 2022
Govt, private MBBS interns demand parity in stipend
Govt, private MBBS interns demand parity in stipend
While government medical colleges (GMCs) are paying a monthly stipend of ₹11,000 to their MBBS interns, several private medical institutes are not doing the same Recently, the NMC released a circular directing all medical institutes to not charge internship fees from Indian as well as foreign medical graduates
Published on May 24, 2022 07:13 PM IST
Mumbai The much-awaited orientation for the recently graduated MBBS students is taking place across medical institutes in the state. However, the difference in stipend being offered by these institutes to the interns has once again raised objections.
While government medical colleges (GMCs) are paying a monthly stipend of ₹11,000 to their MBBS interns, several private medical institutes are not doing the same.
“Internships are compulsory for all. While our fellow students in GMCs are paid a stipend, our institute has clarified that no stipend will be paid, which is unfair,” said a student of a Jalgaon-based private medical college. He added that at their orientation to the internship programme, the college said that stipend will not be paid.
In the early 2019, the Medical Council of India (dissolved later that year and renamed National Medical Commission) had released a public notice clarifying that all MBBS students pursuing the compulsory rotating internship at the institute where their MBBS course was completed will be paid stipend at par with the interns at GMCs. This notice, however, was not converted to a gazette until MCI was dissolved, leaving the rule only on paper.
Recently, the NMC released a circular directing all medical institutes to not charge internship fees from Indian as well as foreign medical graduates (FMG). While it mentions that colleges should pay a stipend, no mention of the amount has been made.
“This is leading to more confusion. Some colleges in the state like Palghar’s Vedanta Medical College have decided to pay only ₹5,000 as monthly stipend, whereas Pune-based Kashibai Navale Medical College has decided to cover lodging and boarding costs for students. There is no uniformity in place,” said another student.
Calls to Vedanta Medical College as well as Kashibai Navale Medical College have gone unanswered.
A senior official at DMER said they have received some complaints and are looking into the matter. In the meantime, parents and students have started approaching central government authorities to raise their concern.
“Either the Directorate of Medical Education and Research (DMER) or the NMC need to release a clear statement about the status of stipend for MBBS interns. Without such an official notice, many students in private medical colleges will end up working without any stipend for the next one year. Even the Fee Regulating Authority (FRA) can get involved because they give fee approval taking into account stipends for medical interns,” said Brijesh Sutaria, parent of an MBBS intern.
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HC seeks AMC’s reply over plea for change in child’s birth certificate
HC seeks AMC’s reply over plea for change in child’s birth certificate
Adoptive Father Wants His Name To Replace Biological Father’s Name
TIMES NEWS NETWORK Ahmedabad : The Gujarat high court on Thursday ordered the Ahmedabad Municipal Corporation (AMC) to reply to a petition against the civic body’s reluctance to change the name of a child in his birth certificate. The plea was filed by the child’s adoptive father who wants the name of the child’s biological father to be replaced with his in the certificate.
The petitioner, a resident of Ranip, approached the HC because he was facing problems getting the child admitted to a school with his name as the father. The child’s mother had contracted a second marriage with him after her divorce with the first husband. The petitioner had adopted her child and an adoption deed was prepared and duly registered with a sub-registrar’s office. On March 3, the petitioner applied to the AMC to make changes in the child’s birth certificate by replacing the biological father’s name with his.
On March 24, he got a reply from the civic body that he would require an order from a competent court to make the correction in the birth certificate. He approached the high court through advocate Bakul Panchal, and the court issued a notice to the AMC. In response to the notice, AMC’s counsel submitted that the adoptive father had withdrawn his application on March 21.
This led the peti- tioner’s lawyer to raise a question on AMC’s order of rejecting the application on merit. He asserted that a valid and registered adoption deed is the only requirement for such correction in birth certificate, but AMC was unnecessarily insistent on the court’s order. Upon hearing these arguments, Justice V D Nanavati asked the civic body to file a reply to the petition on June 6.
Wednesday, May 25, 2022
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Tuesday, May 24, 2022
Monday, May 23, 2022
Management Of Private Medical Colleges Prohibited From Accepting Payment Of Fees In Cash: SC Issues Directions To Curb Capitation Fee Menace
Management Of Private Medical Colleges Prohibited From Accepting Payment Of Fees In Cash: SC Issues Directions To Curb Capitation Fee Menace: The Supreme Court, in an order passed on Thursday, has prohibited managements of private medical colleges from accepting payment of fees in cash.This is to avoid charging of capitation fee. The...
6k foreign med grads struggle to get internships annually
6k foreign med grads struggle to get internships annually
Rema.Nagarajan@timesgroup.com
Around 6,000 foreign medical graduates (FMGs), who clear the screening test annually, struggle to get internships, which are must for practising in India. On November 18 last year, the National Medical Commission (NMC) issued a notification that FMGs can do internships only in medical college hospitals and asked that these set aside 7. 5% (slashed from 10% earlier) internship seats for them.
NMC has also stipulated that FMGs have to complete the internship within two years of passing the screening test. The hardest hit are FMGs from Tamil Nadu because it accounts for the largest number of them clearing the screening test.
“There were just 230 seats available for internship in government colleges in Tamil Nadu while there were about 600 FMGs looking for a slot. Many of them have already lost five months in their desperate hunt for internship slots,” said Senthil Kumar, who did MBBS from Russia. Tamil Nadu chief minister had written to the NMC in January asking for FMGs from the state to be allowed to do internships in government hospitals and to simplify the process to make it easy for FMGs to join internship. There has been no response from the NMC. With extraordinary delays and uncertainty in NEET-PG exams and counselling in the last two years, thousands of medical graduates are trying to leave for the UK and a few hundreds for the US.
At the same time, annually over 20,000 FMGs appear for the screening tests held in June and December. The pass percentage is just around 20% for this notoriously difficult exam. FMGs have to be NEET-qualified to be issued eligibility certificates by the NMC to join a medical course abroad and once back they have to clear the screening test and then complete one-year compulsory internship, which Indian medical graduates do in their final year.
Some of the top medical colleges like AIIMS, JIPMER in Pondicherry and MAMC in Delhi do not allow FMGs to do internships in their hospitals. Delhi’s RML Hospital allows internships but the demand for a seat is immense with over 750 applicants for 230 seats. RML has so many internship seats available because it is a new medical college in which no batch has yet reached the final year. “FMGs are selected on the basis of interviews. But only those with high-level contacts, like children of bureaucrats, manage to get internship slots there,” alleged an FMG from Tamil Nadu who did medicine from Ukraine.
The maximum number of FMGs who clear the screening test are from Delhi, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Kerala. “Private medical colleges ask for large amounts of money to allow students to do internships and even government colleges take fee for internships. Now that NMC has said that they cannot charge for internships, maybe things will change in the government sector, but private colleges will not stop.
A private college had asked for Rs 22 lakh for a one-year internship, which is almost equivalent to what I spent on my entire medical education abroad. We already have education loans taken for studying abroad and so this is not a viable option. This forces students to look for slots in other states. There are very few FMGs from Odisha and so there are empty slots, but the language is a barrier when doing internship,” said an FMG still waiting to find an internship slot in Delhi. States like Maharashtra and Gujarat only allow FMGs from the state to do internships in their colleges. It takes FMGs about seven to eight years or more to become practising doctors — about six years to study MBBS abroad, one year to prepare for the screening test and clear it and then one year of internship, which could become two years or more if they don’t get a slot. Since 2002, when the screening test was introduced, 2. 6 lakh FMGs have appeared for it and over 51,400 have cleared it.
Foreign med grads struggle to get internships
Foreign med grads struggle to get internships
With a doctor shortage and thousands trained in India going abroad every year, you would think India would welcome the prospect of an annual addition of a few thousand of them. Yet, 3,000 to 6,000 foreign medical graduates (FMGs) who clear the screening test every year struggle to get internships, which are compulsory for them to be allowed to practice in India.
Earlier, FMGs were allowed to do internships in identified private hospitals, government hospitals and medical college hospitals. For instance, in Delhi, private hospitals like B L Kapur (BLK) and Gangaram and government hospitals including Deen Dayal Upadhyay, ESI Hospital and Northern Railway hospital would take interns.
But on November 18 last year, the National Medical Commission (NMC) issued a notification that FMGs can do internships only in medical college hospitals and asked that these set aside 7. 5% (slashed from 10% earlier) internship seats for them. NMC has also stipulated that FMGs have to complete the internship within two years of passing the screening test. The hardest hit are FMGs from Tamil Nadu because it accounts for the largest number of them clearing the screening test.
“There were just 230 seats available for internship in government colleges in Tamil Nadu while there were about 600 FMGs looking for a slot. Many of them have already lost five months in their desperate hunt for internship slots,” said Dr Senthil Kumar, who did MBBS from Russia.
Maximum foreign med grads to clear screening from Delhi, 3 other states
Around 6,000 foreign medical graduates (FMGs), who clear the screening test annually, struggle to get internships, which are must for practising in India. The Tamil Nadu chief minister had written to the NMC in January asking for FMGs from the state to be allowed to do internships in government hospitals and to simplify the process to make it easy for FMGs to join internship. There has been no response from the NMC. With extraordinary delays and uncertainty in NEET-PG exams and counselling in the last two years, thousands of medical graduates are trying to leave for the UK and a few hundreds for the US.
At the same time, annually over 20,000 FMGs appear for the screening tests held in June and December. The pass percentage is just around 20% for this notoriously difficult exam. FMGs have to be NEETqualified to be issued eligibility certificates by the NMC to join a medical course abroad and once back they have to clear the screening test and then complete one-year compulsory internship, which Indian medical graduates do in their final year.
Some of the top medical colleges like AIIMS, JIPMER in Pondicherry and MAMC in Delhi do not allow FMGs to do internships in their hospitals. Delhi’s RML Hospital allows internships but the demand for a seat is immense with over 750 applicants for 230 seats. RML has so many internship seats available because it is a new medical college in which no batch has yet reached the final year. “FMGs are selected on the basis of interviews. But only those with high-level contacts, like children of bureaucrats, manage to get internship slots there,” alleged an FMG from Tamil Nadu who did medicine from Ukraine.
The maximum number of FMGs who clear the screening test are from Delhi, Tamil Na- du, Karnataka and Kerala. “Private medical colleges ask for large amounts of money to allow students to do internships and even government colleges take fees for internships. Now that NMC has said that they cannot charge for internships, may be things will change in the government sector, but private colleges will not stop.
A private college had asked for Rs 22 lakh for a one year internship, which is almost equivalent to what I spent on my entire medical educa- tion abroad. We already have education loans taken for studying abroad and so this is not a viable option. This forces students to look for slots in other states. There are very few FMGs from Odisha and so there are empty slots, but the language is a barrier when doing internship,” said an FMG still waiting to find an internship slot in Delhi. States like Maharashtra and Gujarat only allow FMGs from the state to do internships in their colleges. It takes FMGs about seven to eight years or more to become practising doctors — about six years to study MBBS abroad, one year to prepare for the screening test and clear it and then one year of internship, which could become two years or more if they don't get a slot
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