Vikas Vaidya

By Vikas Vaidya Medical Council of India (MCI) has recommended to grant renewal to increased 50 seats to Indira Gandhi Government Medical College and Hospital (IGGMCH), to Central Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, said reliable sources. Respective State Governments had been asked to submit undertaking by the hands of Secretaries. Maharashtra Government again sent Director of Medical Education and Research Dr Pravin Shingare instead of Secretary bringing medical colleges into trouble. Despite this, IGGMCH got the renewal, said sources. The meeting of Executive Committee of MCI was convened for two days in Delhi. MCI had asked States to send Secretaries with Undertakings. Like last year when the then Medical Education Secretary Manisha Mhaiskar could not turn up due to ill-health, this time Medha Gadgil could not go. Dr Shingare did carry undertaking of fulfilling compliance but MCI Executive Committee refused to accept the undertaking as it was to be handed over strictly by

By Vikas Vaidya Medical Council of India (MCI) will be helping Afghanistan to set up Medical Council in that country. A meeting in this regard held in the office of the Embassy of Afghanistan at New Delhi. Officials of the MCI including Dr. Jayshree Mehta, the President and Dr. Vedpraksh Mishra, Chairman, Academic Committee and Dr. Ferozuddin Feroz, Minister of Public Health of the Islamic Republic of Afghanistan along with his high officials were present. A wide ranging discussion took place on mutual areas of concern in the domain of medical education and health care delivery system. The discussion also centered round the core issue wherein the Ministry of Health, Government of Islamic Republic of Afghanistan are in the process of setting up a medical council for their country. They were keen that the said medical council should be akin to the MCI with reference to its authority, jurisdiction, functional modalities and dispensation of regulatory functions specially in the cont

By Vikas Vaidya Coming down heavily on private unaided educational institutions in State, Maharashtra Government has decided to constitute Comprehensive Fee Regulatory Authority to regulate fees for recognised professional courses run by these institutions, to prevent profiteering. State Cabinet took a decision in its meeting held on Tuesday, to implement the Maharashtra Unaided Private Professional Educational Institutions (Regulation of Admission Fees) Act, 2015, the draft of which was pending for past few years. The Cabinet decided to issue an ordinance in this regard during Monsoon Session of State Legislature, which will start after commencement of the academic year 2015-16. The ordinance will spell out appropriate fee structure for professional courses, thereby curbing profiteering. The Government has made it clear that the Supreme Court had directed to enact the law in this regard many years ago, but it could not be enacted as ‘education barons’ dominated in Maharashtra. A

By Vikas Vaidya Less than a month ago Nepal had a severe earthquake and Nagpur city too had experienced tremors at large at every places. People from the offices had come out, some of the offices declared holiday for the day for the people’s safety. On Tuesday too though mild but earthquake tremors were felt in some parts of Nagpur triggering widespread panic and pulling fear-stricken people out of their homes and offices at few places. Deputy Director General and Head of Department of Geological Survey of India, Central Region, Nagpur N Kutumb Rao, Seismic Broadband Observatory located within the premises of GSI, Nagpur had analyzed and computed the data for the earthquake occurred on Tuesday. The data says, the earthquake took place at 12.35 noon at a magnitude of 7.5 Richter Scale. The epicentre of the quake was 1027 kms from the observatory at Nagpur. The latitude was at 28.0050 North and longitude is at 85.915 East. Residents of various parts of city called The Hitavada offic

By Vikas Vaidya Some things never change and this is truly applicable for our slow moving system and its notorious bureaucracy which ensures that every good initiative seldom leads to its desired result. The decision of Maharashtra Government not to allow any new college during current academic year, based on empirical evidence of large number of vacant seats in every stream during last some years, was formalised only two days before the last date of submitting final proposal by respective universities. Ironically, all universities received this circular, after the last date is over. Now, all stakeholders are in confusion and uncertain about proposal and actual implementation of decision. The order dated April 28 has clearly ruled out any new college, faculty, courses or additional seats for this academic year in a move to set right the higher education opportunities in state. The Government order states, "In higher education, balance is required in terms of opportunities fo

By Vikas Vaidya The department of Higher and Technical Education of Maharashtra Government may conduct its own Common Entrance Test (CET) for admission to engineering courses from next academic year. If this CET is conducted then Joint Entrance Examination (JEE) will be out. There is lot of confusion regarding JEE in its current form. Maharashtra Education Minister Vinod Tawde had announced that there would be a state-level common entrance test (MH-CET) for admissions to engineering institutes from the next academic year. The test was last held in 2013-14. Same is scheduled to be held in May 2016. With the cancellation of National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET), respective States are already conducting their own CETs for admission to medical colleges. Supreme Court in an judgement had said that no multiplicity of tests should be held to secure admission in professional courses like medical and engineering. Accordingly NEET was planned. But while planning for the NEET, the Gove

By Vikas Vaidya Maharashtra Government has offered 1.5 FSI for ambitious All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) coming up in 150 acre land at MIHAN. This will help the institute to go vertical. There was a demand to allot 200 acre land for AIIMS, but State offered 150 acre land outside notified zone. Now this additional FSI will help the AIIMS to come up with state-of-the-art facility and Government has expressed its keen desire to transfer the land. Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis had already communicated the decision regarding allotment of 150 acres of land in MIHAN project to the Ministery of Health and Family Welfare. In order to finalise the location, a team of officers of Ministry had visited the site at MIHAN on April 28, 2015. The site identified by the team includes above 100 acres of land under the Special Economic Zone (SEZ) processing zone. The letter further states that the State Government is giving 1.5 FSI to AIIMS in lieu of 50 acres of deficit land alloca

 Dr P M Padole handing over the nose implants to Dr S N Luley. Dr Avinash Deshmukh, Dr Dilip Peshwe, Shirish Deshpande, Secretary of BMEF, Dr Rashmi Uddenwadikar and others look on. By Vikas Vaidya Every individual has a fundamental right to look good but for the unfortunate victims of accidents and those with deformities by birth, plastic surgery is often the only but a costly resort. In many cases if one suffer from deformity in nose, the nose implants are fitted which is a costly affair.  The students of mechanical engineering of Visvesvaraya National Institute of Technology (VNIT) under the aegis of Bio-Medical Engineering Forum (BMEF), have designed and developed nose implant for augmentation Rhinoplasty in collaboration with Dr. S. N. Lulay Senior ENT surgeon of Nagpur. Nikhil Adhe, Sourabh Shende and Adwait Inamdar under guidance of Dr. Rashmi Uddanwadiker have indigenously fabricated low cost implant which suits Indian demography. Nikhil, Adwait and Sourabh were succ

By Vikas Vaidya After formation of Vidarbha Hospital Association by big hospitals to act in unison, now, single doctor establishments have also come together to form Rapid Action Groups to tackle the serious issue of attack on doctors and their hospitals. Taking a cue from their Amravati counterparts, medicos operating their own small establishments and nursing homes decided to join hands to protect themselves from physical assault, goondaism and shoo away miscreants who often vandalise property and carry out physical assault. Emboldended by lack of any resistance from small hospitals and unorganised doctors, many rowdy elements under the guise of helping patients and their relatives resort to violence or dish out threats to carry out violence. In most cases, doctors feel that medical negligence is seldom the reason behind such attacks. Some patients and their relatives create ruckus to avoid settlement of the bills and to armtwist doctors to give up major amount. Often due to demo