Ukraine crisis: NMC allows foreign medical graduates to complete internship in India

Ukraine crisis: NMC allows foreign medical graduates to complete internship in India

Amid ongoing Ukraine crisis, NMC has considered foreign medical graduates (FMG) with incomplete internships as eligible to complete the remaining part of their internship in India Ukraine’s state-run universities providing medical education at low costs have been attracting Indian students for years. The NMC issued detailed guidelines, which are required to be followed by state medical councils for grant of registration of foreign medical graduates till further instructions from the commission or implementation of National Exit Test, whichever occurs earlier 

Published on Mar 05, 2022 01:51 AM IST

ByParteek Singh Mahal, Faridkot

Amid the ongoing evacuation of medical students from war-torn Ukraine, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has considered the foreign medical graduates (FMG) with incomplete internships due to compelling situations, like war, as eligible to complete the remaining part of their internship in India.

For securing registration to practice medicine in India, the students pursuing medical studies abroad require to do double internships — once in the country where they got the MBBS and again in India — as per the National Medical Commission (Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate) Regulations, 2021.

Ukraine’s state-run universities providing medical education at low costs have been attracting Indian students for years. According to the country’s ministry of education and science, there are around 18,095 Indian students in Ukraine. There were hundreds of students, who were doing their internship in the final year of their course.

The NMC undergraduate medical education board in a notification stated that it has been observed that there are also some foreign medical graduates with incomplete internship due to such compelling situation which is beyond their control, such as pandemic Covid-19 and war etc. “Considering the agony and stress faced by these foreign medical graduates, their application to complete the remaining part of an internship in India is considered eligible. Accordingly, the same may be processed by state medical councils provided that the candidates must have cleared FMGE before applying for completion of internship in India,” said deputy secretary Shambhu Sharan Kumar.

The NMC issued the detailed guidelines, which are required to be followed by the state medical councils for the grant of registration of FMGs till further instructions from the commission or implementation of the National Exit Test (NExT), whichever occurs earlier.

“The state medical councils should ensure the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) conducted by the National Board of Examination (NBE) should be cleared by the candidates seeking registration in India. If the candidate is found fulfilling criteria, provisional registration may be granted by the state medical councils for 12 months internship or balance period, as the case may be. State medical councils should obtain an undertaking from the medical college that no fee is charged by the medical college from the FMGs for permitting them to do their internship. The stipend and other facilities to FMGs should be extended equivalent Indian medical graduates being trained at the government medical colleges as fixed by the appropriate authority,” it reads.

TN STUDENTS IN UKRAINE

 

77% medical seats under NRI quota go abegging

77% medical seats under NRI quota go abegging

TNN | Mar 5, 2022, 03.49 AM IST

Chennai: Nearly 77% of the undergraduate medical seats under the NRI quota have remained vacant after the first round of online medical counselling for 2021 admissions. The state selection committee, which has extended counselling for the category, has announced that if these seats continue to remain vacant until Monday, they will be considered as “lapsed seats” and moved to the general pool.

When the counselling opened, 17 self-financing colleges asked for 15% of the seats to be set aside for NRI admissions, for which the fee committee has permitted college managements to charge ₹23.50 lakh as an annual fee. “But even when we opened the counselling there were just 250 applications for the 398 seats. When the process began, 106 candidates locked choices and 92 took the seats,” said selection committee secretary Dr P Vasanthamani.

The committee then decided to extend the first round of counselling for the category and the deadline for registration ended by noon on Friday. Candidates have been asked to lock choices by 10pm on Saturday. “We will be putting out the results by Saturday and students will be given time to join colleges until Monday,” she said.

Seats that continue to remain vacant after Monday will be considered ‘lapsed NRI seats’ and added back into the management quota matrix. Students from the general category in the management rank list can apply for the seats. The fee for lapsed seats will be ₹20.3 lakh. The fee committee has allowed colleges to charge to take ₹12.5 lakh for students allotted under management quota and ₹3.8 to ₹4 lakh for students allotted under government quota.

Students say they will be happy to have at least 300 more seats on the seat matrix. “These seats will cost us more than management quota seats, but it is still lesser than deemed universities, which is the only other option we are left with,” he said.

The admissions to deemed universities, which charge around ₹25lakh a year, are done by the medical counselling committee of the Directorate General of Health Services.

Family of Bengaluru man, who died of Covid-19 eight months ago, gets ‘fully jabbed’ message

Family of Bengaluru man, who died of Covid-19 eight months ago, gets ‘fully jabbed’ message

TNN | Dec 15, 2021, 03.46 AM IST

BENGALURU: The wife of a 77-year-old man from South Bengaluru was in for a shock when she received a message congratulating the latter for being fully vaccinated against Covid-19, eight months after his death. A message from Co-Win stated that he got fully jabbed on December 9.

Sreekantaiah Seetharaman had taken his first dose on March 10. He was due for the second dose in May, as the interdose interval was 4-6 weeks for Covishield at that time. In between, he contracted Covid and died on April 8. “This could be a bogus entry done in my father’s name which is highly questionable,” his son Vishwanath S told TOI.

“This is nothing but the government’s ways to inflate the vaccination coverage. To a man who died due to Covid, the government has sent a message saying he’s fully vaccinated against the disease! If it was a data entry error, how did it match his name and the registered phone number?” the family members questioned.

Incidentally, Seetharaman’s 75-year-old wife had taken the first dose on March 1 and the second dose in August. The couple had used the same phone number for their Co-Win registration. She was not given any certificate during her second dose vaccination at an apartment saying there were technical issues. She also received a message from Co-Win on December 8 that she had taken the second dose on the day. “There is definitely a goof-up. While we hadn’t bothered much about her vaccination certificate when she took it in August, she has now got a message saying she was fully vaccinated on December 8,” the family members said.

As per the vaccination certificates, the couple got their doses at a centre falling under the Kumarswamy Layout urban primary health centre. “There is a code mentioned in the certificate, which we don’t know if it was the same as the vaccination centre in an apartment where they got jabbed,” a family member said.

TOI has a copy of the vaccination certificate and the messages received by Seetharaman’s family.

Dr Arundhathi Chandrasekhar, mission director, National Health Mission, Karnataka, said the matter will be investigated. “We will look into this,” she added.

She said a similar case of a dead person getting a message about being fully vaccinated was reported in Tumakuru recently and when checked, it was found out to be a data entry error. “The error had crept in while typing a phone number. We also checked the number of doses administered by the nurse and it matched with the number of persons vaccinated. There was an error in the data entry, where there was a wrong entry of two digits. It was an entry against a wrong person’s name,” she added.

Dr Chandrasekhar said currently, healthcare workers are visiting houses for vaccination.

“At home or near home vaccination drives are going on. The workers note down the names, contact details of the beneficiaries and enter the details on the Co-Win portal when they return to their offices,” she said.

Missed out on degree? Delhi University offers ‘centenary chance’ to get it now

Missed out on degree? Delhi University offers ‘centenary chance’ to get it now

TNN | Mar 4, 2022, 04.00 AM IST

NEW DELHI: As part of its centenary celebrations, Delhi University is planning a host of activities from May 1 onwards, beginning with the release of a commemorative stamp and coin.

DU vice-chancellor Yogesh Singh on Thursday said competitions, cultural festivals and seminars will be held throughout the year. Moreover, “unsung heroes” who made significant contributions to the varsity as well as distinguished alumni will be felicitated.

The university will also offer a “centenary chance” to those who were unable to complete their studies. “The statutory bodies approved a proposal to give such people two chances to appear for exams and secure their degrees. There will be no age bar and papers will be set according to the syllabus from the student’s time. Many people had requested for the provision,” Singh said.

A book documenting DU’s history and a coffee table book will also be released. “DU started with 750 students and three colleges. Today, there are over seven lakh students and 90 colleges. We want to document its glorious past, in a documentary as well,” Singh said.

DU also plans to adopt a village for outreach activities like health check-up and blood donation camps. Apart from a proposal to plant 100 trees across 100 locations of DU campuses, the varsity will also organise an exhibition of rare manuscripts, book fairs and revive its community radio.

An initial seed money of Rs 10 crore has been approved by the statutory bodies for the centenary celebrations, Singh said. “Our vision is to feature among the top 200 universities in the world and we will take all necessary steps, including focusing on recruitment, to achieve that. We need the right kind of ecosystem for it,” he added.

Meanwhile, Singh on Thursday released the logo and tagline for the centenary celebrations. Out of 315 entries received, the university selected the logo designed by Gargi College student Kratika Khinchi.

Seeking old pension plan, govt staffers gherao HP assembly

Seeking old pension plan, govt staffers gherao HP assembly

TNN | Mar 4, 2022, 04.05 AM IST

SHIMLA: Thousands of protesting state government employees, covered under the New Pension Scheme (NPS), gheraoed the state legislative assembly here on Thursday in support of their demand for the implementation of the old pension scheme. The police tried to stop the protester near 103 Tunnel and the near the assembly complex by using water canons and setting up barricades, but a large number of them managed to gherao the assembly.

Meanwhile, the issue was even raised inside the House and opposition Congress staged a walkout after the speaker turned down an adjournment notice to discuss it.

The protesters have made their intention clear of not leaving the protest site till their demand is met. They said if the chief minister fails to make an announcement regarding the implementation of the Old Pension Scheme in his budget speech on Friday they will devise further strategy after holding the meeting of their core committee.

Facing police batons, tear gas and water cannons, they first clashed with the police in Tutikandi, then at 103 Tunnel and then near the assembly complex. At 103 Tunnel, they broke barricades after a scuffle with cops to reach the assembly complex, where they breached more barricades, to stage a dharna at the main gate.

Shimla deputy commissioner Aditya Negi came with his administrative team to talk to the protesters, but failed to convince them. Later, DGP Sanjay Kundu tried to convince them, but failed. Then urban development minister and Shimla (Urban) MLA Suresh Bhardwaj tried to pacify the protesters but failed to make a headway. The protest was still going on outside the assembly at the time of filing this report.

In the winter session of the assembly held in Dharamsala in December last year, Swaran Samaj had held a massive dharna to demand the formation of Swaran Ayog. A similar situation has been created here now, with employees coming out on the roads for their demand of Old Pension Scheme. NPS Employees Federation is holding a sit-in outside the assembly in Shimla and insisting on talking to the chief minister.

Earlier in the day, the protesters, who had come from all over the state, gathered at Tutikandi, from where they started a foot march towards the assembly but were stopped by the police at the bypass. The administration had given them permission to hold a rally at Chaura Maidan, but no protester headed that way.

NPS Employees Federation leaders were very categoric that either the chief minister announce the restoration of old pension scheme or be prepared for porlonged protests as they will not leave Shimla “without old pension”.

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