Six new AIIMS will give fillip to medical research: Azad

Jaipur: Admitting that inadequate number of doctors has affected medical research in the country, Union Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today expressed hope that the sector would get a fillip with the coming up of six new AIIMS from next year.
 
"Six new AIIMS in the country will start functioning by April next year in different states, including Jodhpur in Rajasthan. This will ease pressure on AIIMS Delhi and research work will get momentum," he said at a press conference here.
 
Highlighting achievements of the UPA government, Azad said that the government has taken new initiatives and launched several flagship schemes and programmes in different fields, including the health sector.
 
"The number of doctors and nursing staff is inadequate in the country but the government amended rules two years back to change the scenario and improve situation in medical education. Forty-six new medical colleges came up in the country...seats in MBBS and PG courses were increased considerably," he said.
 
UPA's flagship schemes like National Rural Health Mission, Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme have benefited people in the country at large, he said.
 
"We are concerned about the diseases like cancer, diabetes and heart attack which will be high in next 18 years. We started a pilot project in 100 districts of the country for screening these diseases," he said.
 
"The UPA government took several initiatives in different sectors including social security and impact of these will come before people after 8-10 years," Azad said.

Checking high fees in private medical colleges not feasible: Union health minister

JAIPUR: Union minister for health and family welfare Ghulam Nabi Azad on Wednesday said stopping private medical colleges from charging high fees from students would hurt the medical sector.

"It costs around Rs 350 crore to set up a medical college. Added to this is the annual recurring cost of around Rs 40-45 crore. Even if a college charges the students in lakh, it can get only up to Rs 15-20 crore a year," the health minister said, justifying the high fee structure in private medical colleges.

Azad said the government had to amend the rules two years ago to change the scenario and improve situation in medical education. "Since then 46 new medical colleges have came up in the country and seats in the MBBS and more so in the PG courses have considerably increased," the health minister said. He added, "If we had depended on the government for the medical colleges, the country would not have had even half the number of doctors we have today."

Azad said India still lacks in adequate medical facilities and the number of doctors in proportion to the population was much less. "The AIIMS (All India Institute of Medical Sciences) was meant for research work  only, but owing to large number of patients it is handling, the doctors there get no time for research," the health minister. The AIIMS's six branches, including the one coming up in Rajasthan's Jodhpur city, would become operational by March 2013, Azad added.

Mayo College opens doors for poor children

JAIPUR: The prestigious Mayo College, Ajmer will now admit 25 per cent students of weaker sections from its vicinity under the RTE Act and will provide free eduction to them. 

The institution along with un-aided private schools and others of Rajasthan had challenged the constitutional validity of the Act in the High Court. 

However, with the Supreme Court verdict on April 12 upholding the validity of the Act, the Mayo College today submitted before the high court that the institution is bound by the apex court judgement. 

The education institution, also known as the Eton of the East, will open doors for poor students from the current session. 

Earlier, the National Commission for Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) had issued a notice dated November 21, 2011 to Mayo administration to scrap the admission procedure after it was reported that had  conducted entrance test and screening as also interviews of parents on December 21 and 22 last year in violation of RTE Act. 

Besides, the local administration had also served a notice on the school to comply with the mandatory provision under Right to Education Act. 

The Act mandates that poor, weaker section and disabled students should be given free education in their neighbourhood by all private schools. However, the minority run institutes are exempted. 

It was contended by the College at one point that the boarding and residential schools are not bound to follow the mandate of Act and it was free to interview parents and students. 

The school administration had also contended that Navoday schools and military schools all admit students by way of screening test. 

Central University of Rajasthan adds 6 new courses, counselling from today

JAIPUR: The Central University of Rajasthan, Ajmer kicked off its admission process for the nextacademic session with the introduction of six new courses this year. The university will organisecounselling sessions in different cities of the state starting from Jaipur on Thursday. 

The first session will begin on May 3 in Maharaja's College and on May 8 at Kanoria College. CU is running 14 courses. 

The university will also start PhD programmes in 20 courses from the next academic session. Vice-chancellor, MM Salunkhe informed that all post graduates from the university will have high job potential. 

The associate professors of the university will counsel the students with the help of PowerPoint presentation in the sessions and explain them about the 14 existing courses and six new job-oriented courses that have been added to give the students more options. 

New courses include- MSc in Biotechnology, MSc in Microbiology, MSc in Social Work, MA in Policy, Law and Governance, MCom and MPharma. The admission test for all these courses (CUCET-2012) is being conducted by seven central universities including Bihar, Jammu, Jharkhand, Kashmir, Kerala, Tamil Nadu, and Rajasthan. 

Offline exam date for English and Hindi courses will be June 3 and online exam date will be June 9 and 10, 2012. 

The centres for the examination in Rajasthan will be Jaipur, Ajmer, Jodhpur, Udaipur, Bikaner and Kota. 

Bonus wheat, monthly scholarship for students in Rajasthan

Jaipur: The Rajasthan government announced proposals including a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal on wheat, exemption of yarn from entry tax and a monthly scholarship of Rs 500 for economically backward students.
    
The government purchased around 13.5 lakh tonnes wheat in the present year and target for the next fiscal is around 15 lakh MT and announced a bonus of Rs 100 per quintal for wheat purchase (besides MSP), Chief Minister Ashok Gehlot said in the debate on the state budget 2012-13 in the legislative assembly. The budget was presented on March 26.
    
The government will allocate Rs 150 crore for this, he added.
    
For the education sector, Gehlot proposed to upgrade 200 higher primary government schools to the level of secondary, as many secondary school to the level of senior secondary and opening of science stream in 100 senior secondary schools and commerce in as many schools.
    
He announced a scholarship scheme of 500 per month for such students, who are not availing any other scholarship scheme and with family income is up to Rs 1 lakh annually, till completion of their higher studies or for a period of maximum 5 year.
    
One lakh students who are in the merit list of 12th Rajasthan board exams will be given the scholarship, he said.
    
Gehlot also announced that all such players who are medalists in national level sports competitions will also be benefitted with two per cent reservation quota (sports) in the state services.
    
So far, medalists in only international competitions were eligible to avail this benefit, he added.
    
He made several other announcements including exemption of yarn except PV yarn from entry tax.
    
The Chief Minister also mentioned that his government recruited 67,605 so far.
    
He also proposed to release prisoners under certain categories after remitting their remaining imprisonment.
    
Prisoners suffering from Cancer, AIDS, leprosy (kushth), blind or dependent, male aged above 70 and female above 65 years who have completed 1/3 of their sentence, or those who have completed their 2/3 sentence are under the categories.
    
The Chief Minister proposed to release such prisoners only if they are not convicted under prohibited cases or sections. 

Over 6 lakh students to sit for senior secondary exam

Jaipur: Over six lakh students would appear for the senior secondary examination of Rajasthan Board of Secondary Education, beginning in the state tomorrow.

“A total of 6,89,378 students are enrolled for the XII board exams which will begin tomorrow amid tight security arrangements,” Subhash Garg, board chairman, told reporters here.

“We have taken several measures to ensure security of question papers and answer sheets during the exam with help of police and home guards,” he said.

For the first time, Garg said, they had formed women flying squads at all the seven divisional headquarters to check use of unfair means during examination in girls' schools.

Garg said the Secondary examination of the state board, for which 10,12,440 students are enrolled, will begin from March 22.

NCC to hone cadets English skills for easing recruitment

Jaipur: With an aim to make cadets more confident and raising their chances to get recruited in defence services, NCC is now looking to set up 'language labs' in its units.

"We must have language labs where we can give training to cadets on languages particularly English so as to improve their confidence level and making them more capable," DG NCC Lt Gen P S Bhalla told reporters  at NCC complex here.

The NCC's motive is to promote the cadets to join armed forces and a good command over English will surely help them, he said.

"Such labs do exist in some places but these are in schools and colleges and we are sharing with them. The number is around 25-30 but we need to have more than 100 and in next 6-8 month we plan to increase the existing number," he said.

Emphasising on the enrolment of girl cadets, Bhalla said,  current percentage of girl cadets in Rajasthan is only 18 against the national percentage of 25 and NCC plans to increase it to 30-33 per cent in the next 3-4 years.

"It is important for giving equal opportunities for girls and for that we are raising another girls unit in Rajasthan. We will raise three units in the state and one of them will be for girls," he said.

Currently, there are two NCC units for girls in the state including one in Jaipur.

"The new unit could be in Jaipur or Jodhpur depending upon the number of girls," he said.

Bhalla said, NCC will increase its strength to 15 lakh from present 13.4 lakh cadets and improve training structure in next three years.

He said that the NCC has a plan to raise 5 Group HQs and 60 units in the country in five years out of which 1 HQ and 12 units have already raised last year. 

Kalam interacts with dyslexic students

Jaipur: Former President A P J Abdul Kalam interacted with students afflicted with dyslexia- a learning disability- and answered their queries. 
 
Children got excited as soon Kalam arrived at Bhawani Child Development center on Sirsi road near here and gave their introduction to him before the session. 
 
Responding to queries by students, Kalam said his dream was to see smiles on the faces of people.
 
Well known as Missile Man, Kalam, who told the kids that he liked poetry and the profession of a teacher, also administered oath to the students for dreaming high.
 
A class 12th student Kshitiz performed Yoga whereas some students performed a group dance on the occasion. 

Rajasthan University to introduce course in policing

Jaipur:In an effort to hone policing skills of aspiring youths, a Kota-based university today announced a two-year postgraduate course in police studies.

"Besides the students, the course is designed for those employed as private security guards and will help enhance their knowledge and broaden their approach towards policing," Naresh Dadhich, Vice Chancellor of Verdhaman Mahaveer Open University, told reporters here today.

"Policing is an important subject in our society and we felt an immense need to run a course which is useful for youths who are aspiring to join police forces," he said.

Titled 'MA in Police Studies', the two-year distance learning programme will start from July this year.

The curriculum has been designed with the help of experts and senior police officers, said Dadhich, adding VMOU was the first open university in the country to announce this course.

The Vice Chancellor said the university would write to the state government, asking it to give more preference to students of this course while recruiting for the state police service.