With 37,000 medical students giving details about their mental health illnesses, worried NMC

With 37,000 medical students giving details about their mental health illnesses, worried NMC

3 min read 12 May 2024, 03:37 PM IST

Priyanka Sharma

The National Medical Commission (NMC) has formed a committee to discuss the alarming issue and draft recommendations.

New Delhi: A staggering 37,000 medical students have told the goverment's medical education authority that they are suffering from potentially risky mental health ailments, alarming the body into prescribing a phalanx of measure including regulated duty hours and suicide watch.

A psychiatrist at the All Indian Institute of Medical Sciences in New Delhi described the shocking figures as “the tip of the iceberg."

The National Medical Commission had launched an online survey after finding that 130 medical students had taken their lives in the last five years. In the survey, medical students and faculty submitted details about the mental health illnesses they were suffering from—ranging from crippling anxiety and work pressure to overwhelming stress.

Concerned over the number of students suffering from mental illness, the NMC formed a 15-member committee to discuss the issue and draft recommendations.

Suggestions made by the NMC following the overwhelming response to the online survey include gate-keeper programmes to prevent suicide and for identifying vulnerable students, regulating duty hours for post-grad students, better student facilities, friendlier work environment, and round-the clock professional counselling services.

For national rollout

These recommendations will be submitted to the Union Health and Family Welfare Ministry this month to be rolled out across medical colleges in the country.

“Some of the universal recommendations which are in discussion includes- adjustment support and orientation in medical colleges for new students to understand their role & duties; facilities in the college; ways to cope up with home sickness; awareness campaigns, celebration of world mental health day, world suicide prevention day and drug prevention day; anti-ragging measures will be strengthened; regulations of duty hours for medical PG students not more than 80 hours a week which is being followed internationally. Currently, PG students are working as much as 100 hours a week without any break," said a government official requesting anonymity.

Addressing concerns

“In addition to it, plans are also in discussion to address concerns of the teachers; strengthening of mentor-mentoring programme. A new initiative—gate-keepers programme—will start to prevent suicide and identify vulnerable students and exclusive 24x7 professionals counselling services will commence to counsel students via government’s tele-manas portal," said the official adding that adding that efforts are being made to make the work environment student-friendly for medical students.

The online survey on mental health issues was divided into four parts in which graduate, post-grad and faculty participated.

“We have received more than 37,000 applications from medical students and faculty which itself indicates that doctors are suffering from mental stress. Most of the students face problems in hostels, and during ragging, which we are streamlining. Our education system for primary and secondary classes are reformed, but there is no work regulation for higher education. For PG students, we have directed states to relax seat leaving bond policy of the state government," said the second official on the condition of anonymity.

Stigma deters

“Every hospital has psychiatric division, but due to stigma students do not report. If a student is under stress whom he will inform first whether peers or else faculty. Strengthening of anti-ragging and anti-sexual harassment measures. In the last 130 medical students have committed suicide equally both in UG and PG classes. This means—25-26 students take their lives every year," added the official.

The committee is devising regulations by evaluating analyzing survey results.

“This is just tip of iceberg. The numbers of doctors suffering from mental health illnesses could be much higher. The data itself says that around 70% of doctors feel burnout. They feel lack of interest going to the workplace, lack of pleasure, lack of motivation and lack of communication among the medical community and acceptability is very poor," said Dr Nand Kumar, professor of psychiatric department at All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), New Delhi.

Queries sent to the union health ministry spokesperson remained unanswered till press time.

LTC rules for central government employees: Eligibility, inclusions, special provisions and more details

LTC rules for central government employees: Eligibility, inclusions, special provisions and more details

TIMESOFINDIA.COM | May 15, 2024, 04.35 PM IST

LTC rules: The Ministry of Personnel, Public Grievances, and Pensions, through the Department of Personnel and Training (DoPT), has issued guidelines for Leave Travel Concession (LTC) for central government employees. Firstly, it’s important to understand that are all central government employees eligible for LTC? What are the rules and conditions? Here's what you need to know.

What is Leave Travel Concession (LTC)?

According to an ET report, the latest Office Memorandum from April 30, 2024, defines the Leave Travel Concession as a travel benefit that allows government employees to visit their hometown or any place in India during a four-year period. Employees have two options: they can either visit their hometown twice in a four-year block, with each visit spread over two years, or visit their hometown once in the first two years and any other place in India once during the next two years.

Who is eligible for LTC?

According to the Office Memorandum, the LTC rules apply to the following groups:

1. People working in civil service positions, including civilian government employees in Defence Services related to the Union's operations.

2. State government employees who are on deputation to the Central Government.

3. Those employed on a contract basis.

4. Individuals who have been re-employed after retirement.

Who is not eligible for LTC?

The following categories of people are not eligible for LTC:

a) Government servants who are not full-time employees.

b) People in casual or daily-wage jobs.

c) Individuals paid from contingency funds.

d) Railway employees*

e) Members of the Armed Forces.

f) Local recruits in Indian missions abroad.g) Anyone already eligible for other types of travel concessions during leave or otherwise.

However, Railway employees may be allowed to use "All India LTC" once in a block of four years under specific conditions.

Special provisions for specific employee categories

Special provisions in Rule 2 of the LTC guidelines outline the following:

1. Eligibility for certain employees

Employees in groups (ii), (iii), and (iv) from Rule 1(3) must have one year of continuous service to be eligible for LTC. The relevant authority must also confirm that the employee will likely continue working with the Central Government for at least two more years to qualify for hometown LTC, and at least four more years for LTC to any place in India.

2. Contract-based employees

For contract-based employees, the total duration of their contract, including any extensions, will determine their eligibility for LTC.

3. Re-employed retirees

If someone is re-employed immediately after retirement without a break, their re-employed period is considered continuous with their previous service. They can use LTC for the re-employment period, but only if they could have used it before retirement. For example, if an officer used LTC to visit any place in India during a four-year block and is re-employed right after retirement, they can't use that same LTC benefit until the four-year block ends.

Tamil Nadu: Pharmacies told to not sell 1 ml syringes to strangers to curb drug abuse

Sources say anti-social elements have been known to use painkillers and anaesthetic drugs, which are scheduled drugs that can only be bought with a doctor's prescription.

 COIMBATORE: Pharmacies have been advised to sell 1 and 2 ML syringes that are used by people with diabetes for taking insulin shots only to known customers. The Food Safety and Drug Administration Department's informal instruction aims to curb drug abuse.

However, this is set to inconvenience diabetic patients who regularly take insulin if they can't produce the prescription at a new shop or place.

"The sale of scheduled drugs has almost been regulated and brought under complete surveillance. On the other hand, the police investigation revealed that most insulin syringes are used in drug abuse cases. So we have advised pharmacies not to sell those syringes to unknown people, as they approach pharmacies on the pretext of buying syringes for insulin shots. We are making all the efforts in whatever form we can to prevent drug abuse," said S Gurubharathi, Assistant Director of the Drug Control, Coimbatore zone.

Sources say anti-social elements have been known to use painkillers and anaesthetic drugs, which are scheduled drugs that can only be bought with a doctor's prescription. These drugs are often crushed into powder and mixed with IV fluids before being injected into veins to produce a state of intoxication.

While the constant efforts of the police and the Food Safety and Drug Administration Department have resulted in a reduction in drug abuse incidents, some drugs are still being purchased online or from other states and used for intoxication.

To tackle this issue and prevent drug abuse, the aforementioned department has instructed pharmacies not to sell syringes to unknown or suspicious individuals since most insulin syringes are used in drug abuse cases. This step is crucial to prevent drug abuse, but it can also put patients with diabetes at risk. Patients may only be able to purchase the needle at pharmacies where they are known by the sellers, and buying at a new location may pose trouble.

Diabetic patients are usually prescribed insulin by doctors based on their blood sugar levels. They can take insulin in various ways, such as vials and syringes, insulin pens, or insulin pumps. However, most pharmacies do not sell 6 mm syringes to new customers, which can be frustrating for patients who need to purchase insulin syringes at a new location.

"Taking insulin by injection is the most common practice as it is cost-effective. However, most pharmacies do not sell 1 or 2ml syringes to new customers. Recently, I was supposed to take insulin before lunch. I sent my son to a nearby pharmacy to get a syringe. However, they refused to give it to him. After I went in person and explained my situation and showed the medicine vials, they gave me the syringes. I appreciate the effort in preventing drug abuse but patients will suffer at new places," M Sreedharan, a retired bank employee said.

While it is essential to prevent drug abuse, patients should not be put at risk due to these restrictions. It is important to balance the need to prevent drug abuse with the need to ensure that patients have access to the necessary medical supplies, he added.

Meanwhile, pharmacists have also voiced their concerns about selling syringes to new customers as syringes are often considered evidence by the police in drug abuse cases, which can cause trouble for the pharmacy.

"Anyone can buy the syringes even without a doctor's prescription. But if the usage is unethical, we land in trouble. Also, there is no huge profit in selling such syringes. So we avoid selling them to new people. We only sell them to the existing customers who are known for insulin purchase," said M Kaviarasu, a city-based pharmacist.

MKU VC Kumar relieved of duties following resignation

MKU VC Kumar relieved of duties following resignation

The governor accepted the resignation on May 3 and Kumar was relieved from his duties on Monday. He is set to vacate his official bungalow on Tuesday morning.

Express News Service

Updated on:

14 May 2024, 8:21 am

MADURAI: Madurai Kamaraj University (MKU) Vice-Chancellor (VC) J Kumar was relieved from his duty on Monday. Although Kumar had submitted his resignation letter earlier, the Department of Higher Education did not form a convener committee to govern the varsity till a new vice-chancellor was appointed.

Kumar assumed office on April 1, 2022, and has a tenure of three years. While Kumar still has 11 months for his tenure to end, he expressed his desire to resign and accordingly, submitted his resignation to Governor RN Ravi. The governor accepted the resignation on May 3 and Kumar was relieved from his duties on Monday. He is set to vacate his official bungalow on Tuesday morning.

Usually, the principal secretary to the Department of Higher Education recommends the name of a syndicate member of the MKU to the convener committee during the urgent syndicate meeting. However, no such meeting has been held to date.

Speaking to TNIE, Kumar said that as per his resignation letter, he was relieved on Monday. “I was unaware of the urgent syndicate meeting on forming a convener committee to govern the university, till a new VC is appointed,” he said.

Speaking to TNIE on the condition of anonymity, a syndicate member from MKU said that it is essential to form a convener committee before the VC is relieved. “To date, no communication has been received in this regard. We expect the meeting to be convened within this week,” the official said.

AI-Vistara merger awaiting foreign direct investment, other approvals: Singapore Airlines

AI-Vistara merger awaiting foreign direct investment, other approvals: Singapore Airlines

Vistara is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tatas, which also owns Air India.

By: PTI

New Delhi | May 15, 2024 21:56 IST

The Singapore Airlines group posted a 24 per cent rise in net profit at 2,675 million Singapore dollars for FY 2023-24, helped by robust air travel demand. (File/ Reuters)

Singapore Airlines Group on Wednesday said the proposed Air India and Vistara merger, which is awaiting foreign direct investment and other approvals, will strengthen its multi-hub strategy as well as allow it to continue directly participating in the fast-growing Indian aviation market.

The group posted a 24 per cent rise in net profit at 2,675 million Singapore dollars for FY 2023-24, helped by robust air travel demand.

In a release, the group said it has reported the highest full-year operating and net profits in its history as robust demand for air travel drives record passenger revenue and load factors.

About Air India-Vistara merger, the group said foreign direct investment and other regulatory approvals are pending.

Vistara is a joint venture between Singapore Airlines and Tatas, which also owns Air India.

“Once completed, it will give SIA a 25.1 per cent stake in an enlarged Air India Group with a significant presence in all key Indian airline market segments, including domestic, international, full-service, and low-cost.

“This will strengthen SIA’s multi-hub strategy, and allow the group to continue participating directly in this large and fast-growing aviation market,” the release said.

The merger, announced in November 2022, was approved by the Competition and Consumer Commission of Singapore in March. In September 2023, the deal received approval from the Competition Commission of India (CCI), subject to certain conditions.

On the outlook, the Singapore Airlines Group said the demand for air travel remains healthy in the first quarter of FY2024/25, supported by a strong pick up in forward bookings to North Asia and South East Asia.

Passenger yields will likely continue to moderate due to increased capacity injection by airlines, especially in the Asia-Pacific region, it noted.

However, it also mentioned that the airline industry continues to face challenges including rising geopolitical tensions, an uncertain macroeconomic climate, supply chain constraints, and high inflation in many parts of the world.

First uploaded on: 15-05-2024 at 21:56 IST

OpenAI Releases New GPT-4o, A Faster And Free AI Model For All Users

OpenAI Releases New GPT-4o, A Faster And Free AI Model For All Users

The new model GPT-4o -- the "O" stands for omni -- will be rolled out in OpenAI's products over the next few weeks, the company said, with paid customers having unlimited access to the tool.

World NewsAgence France-Presse

Updated: May 14, 2024 5:52 am IST

The company said the model could generate content or understand commands in voice, text, or images.

San Francisco:

OpenAI on Monday released a higher performing and even more human-like version of the artificial intelligence technology that underpins its popular generative tool ChatGPT, making it free to all users.

The update to OpenAI's flagship product landed a day before Google is expected to make its own announcements about Gemini, the search engine giant's own AI tool that competes with ChatGPT head on.

"We're very, very excited to bring GPT-4o to all of our free users out there," Chief Technology Officer Mira Murati said at the highly anticipated launch event in San Francisco.

The new model GPT-4o -- the "O" stands for omni -- will be rolled out in OpenAI's products over the next few weeks, the company said, with paid customers having unlimited access to the tool.

The company said the model could generate content or understand commands in voice, text, or images.

"The new voice (and video) mode is the best computer interface I've ever used. It feels like AI from the movies," said OpenAI CEO Sam Altman in a blog post.

Altman has previously pointed to the Scarlett Johansson character in the movie "Her" as an inspiration for where he would like AI interactions to go.

"Talking to a computer has never felt really natural for me; now it does," he added.

Murati and engineers from OpenAI demonstrated the new powers of GPT-4o at the virtual event, posing challenges to the beefed-up version of the ChatGPT chatbot.

The demo mainly featured OpenAI staff members asking questions to the voiced ChatGPT, which responded with jokes and human-like banter.

The bot served as an interpreter from English to Italian, interpreted facial expressions and walked one user through a difficult algebra problem.

The company said that GPT-4o had the same powers as the previous version when it came to text, reasoning, and coding intelligence, and set new industry standards for multilingual conversations, audio, and vision.

In one demonstration, ChatGPT successfully interpreted an employee's surroundings through a smartphone camera, speaking in a friendly, feminine voice, not unlike the AI bot in the film "Her".

"Hmmm from what I can see it looks like you're in some kind of recording or production set-up with lights, tripods… you might be gearing up to shoot a video or make an announcement?" the ChatGPT bot said.

- 'Take our time' -

Anticipation was high in recent weeks that OpenAI would release an AI-amped version of an online search tool to compete with Google search engine, but on Friday Altman said this would not be the case.

Observers were also waiting for the launch of GPT-5, but Altman said last week that his company would "take our time on releases of major new models."

The event is just the latest episode in the AI arms race that has seen OpenAI-backer Microsoft surpass Apple as the world's biggest company by market capitalization.

OpenAI and Microsoft are in a heated rivalry with Google to be generative AI's major player, but Facebook-owner Meta and upstart Anthropic are also making big moves to compete.

All the companies are scrambling to come up with ways to cover generative AI's exorbitant costs, much of which goes to chip giant Nvidia and its powerful GPU semiconductors.

Making the new model available to all users may raise questions about OpenAI's path to monetization amid doubts that everyday users are ready to pay a subscription.

Until now, only lower performing versions of OpenAI or Google's chatbots were available to customers for free.

"We are a business and will find plenty of things to charge for," Altman said on his blog.

The AI makers are also feeling pressure from publishers and creators, who are demanding payment for any content used to train the models.

OpenAI has signed content partnerships with the Associated Press, the Financial Times and Axel Springer, but is also caught in a major lawsuit with The New York Times.

AI companies have also been confronted with separate lawsuits from artists, musicians, and authors in US courtrooms.

Post a comment(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

NEET PG 2024 Exam Pattern REVISED, NMC Issues Official Notice; Here’s All You Need To Know

NEET PG 2024 Exam Pattern REVISED, NMC Issues Official Notice; Here’s All You Need To Know

The NEET PG 2024 is scheduled to take place on June 23, 2024 and a little more than a month before the medical entrance test, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has revised the examination pattern and has added mandatory time-bound sections in MCQ-based examinations.

Updated: May 5, 2024 2:07 PM IST

By Ananya Srivastava

NEET PG 2024 New Exam Pattern

New Delhi: The students who aspire to enter the profession of medicine and become doctors, are expected to clear the competitive examinations to enter the medical colleges and pursue the profession of their choice. This entrance examination is the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) which is conducted at both undergraduate and postgraduate levels. The National Eligibility cum Entrance Test-Postgraduate, NEET PG 2024 Exam Date is June 23, 2024 and a little over a month before the examination, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has revised the NEET PG 2024 Exam Pattern and has added mandatory time-bound sections in the MCQ-based examinations. Read to know what does it mean, the difference it makes and what does the official notice by NMC actually say…

NEET PG 2024 Exam Pattern Revised By NMC

As mentioned earlier, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has issued an official notice dated May 4, 2024 which is about ‘Introduction of Mandatory Time-Bound Sections In MCQ Examinations’ for NEET PG 2024. This decision has been made by the national Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS). Here’s what this change means. According to the official notice, this change of introducing time-bound sections has not just been done for NEET PG 2024 but also for NEET MDS, NEET SS, FMGE, DNB-PDCET, GPAT, DPEE, FDST and FET. This is being done to ‘enhance the security and sanctity of the exams in light of emerging threats during the examination process’.

NEET PG 2024 Exam Pattern – Changes Introduced

Take a look at the changes that have been introduced, quoted as per the official notice by NBEMS..

The question paper in these examinations will be divided into multiple time bound sections. For example, in NEET-PG 2024, if there are five time-bound sections (A, B, C, D & E) in the question paper, each section will have 40 questions and 42 minutes of time allotted.

Candidates will be restricted from proceeding to the next section until they complete the allotted time for the previous section.

Additionally, candidates will not be allowed to review the questions or modify their responses for a section after the completion of its allotted time.

The questions for the next section will start automatically after the completion of the allotted time for the previous section.

Candidates are given the option to mark any question, whether attempted or not, for review. This means that candidates can go through these marked questions in a section again before the allotted time for that section ends.

It is important to note that questions marked for review will be evaluated according to the marking scheme as mentioned in the Information Bulletin of the respective examination.

The actual number of time-restricted sections in an examination may vary based on the total number of questions in the question paper and operational feasibility in creating such sections.

Why Was NEET PG 2024 Preponed?

The NEET PG 2024 Exam Date was preponed; earlier the examination was scheduled to take place on July 7 but it was then pulled up to June 23, 2024. In a response to an RTI application filed by Dr Vivek Pandey, the NMC has revealed the reason for preponement. According to the response, the NEET PG 2024 Exam has been preponed because of the RathYatra festival. As shared by Dr Vivek Pandey on the social media platform ‘X’ (formerly known as Twitter), “As per RTI reply by NMC, NEET PG 2024, originally set for 7 july. Then moved to June 23 due to festival of RathYatra on 7 july 2024.”