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Thank god I do not have to travel to six different cities to appear for medical entrance tests and then apply to each of these colleges separately," says Swastik Agarwal, a Plus Two student of Calcutta, who will be appearing for her medical entrance exam next year. NEET or no NEET? Bringing an end to what had seemed like a never-ending dilemma of medical and dental aspirants in India and their families, President Pranab Mukherjee signed an ordinance last week making clear the following - NEET or the all-India National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test stays. From 2017 it will apply universally, but for this year, the states have the option of holding their own entrance examinations. The ordinance upholds a Supreme Court ruling that there should be a single gateway to medical education in the country and not 35 (for 412 medical colleges), as is the case now. So, apart from ensuring that Swastik does not have to travel needlessly, how else is a single exam useful? "St...

The Supreme Court on Friday quashed a plea asking the court to stay the President's ordinance that allowed states to have their own medical entrance examinations.  That means, for now, states can go ahead with their own separate medical examinations and they don't have to use the single National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) results for admitting students.  The apex court said staying the NEET ordinance would create further confusion in the minds of students.  "Lets us not create further confusion on entrance examination and let students appear for test with certain amount of certainty... We will hear plea after the vacation," the court said.  President Pranab Mukherjee on Tuesday signed an order that allows state boards to skip NEET for a year. The ordinance - or executive order - cleared by the Cabinet last week, was aimed at "partially" overturning a Supreme Court order.  The top court ruled last month that NEET would be the only test f...

The latest Ordinance on the National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) by the government hasn’t actually resolved the confusion over the admission process to medical seats in various institutions in Andhra Pradesh and  Telangana . Thousands of students and their parents in the two states are keeping their fingers crossed, as the medical seat aspirants are now compelled to take NEET-2 and also the medical entrance tests conducted by the respective states. What is NEET-2? The first phase of NEET was conducted on 1 May, by which time the Supreme Court had not provided clarity on the objections raised by different states. Considering the requests from several states, the union government promulgated an ordinance exempting the states from filling the state quota of seats in government and private medical colleges for this academic year. Therefore, another NEET-2 exam was scheduled for 24 July. The students aspiring to join the medical courses under management quota and NR...

Citing shortage of doctors, Prime Minister   Narendra Modi   today announced raising the age of retirement of government doctors to 65 years and said the Union Cabinet will give its nod to the decision this week. In a rally to observe the second anniversary of his government, Modi said there is a need for more doctors across the country but it was not possible to fill the gap in two years of his government. The decision will cover all government doctors whether serving under states or the central dispensation, he said. "There is a shortage of doctors. In government hospitals, their retirement is 60 years in some states, 62 in some others. If adequate number of medical institutes were there, then we would have more doctors and would not feel the shortage. It is difficult to make doctors in two years but poor families cannot be forced to live without doctors. "Therefore from Uttar Pradesh, I want to announce this to my countrymen that this week our governm...

The ordinance that deferred by a year the Supreme Court order to conduct the National Eligibility Entrance Test (NEET) from 2016 is back in court. Health activist Anand Rai, known for exposing the Vyapam scam—an admission and recruitment scandal in Madhya Pradesh—on Thursday filed a petition in the Supreme Court against the centre’s decision to promulgate the ordinance. The petition that sought the quashing of the ordinance questioned the centre’s flip-flop on the issue. The centre had initially accepted the apex court’s order and later partially reversed it through the ordinance. The centre’s decision was in violation of Section 14 (right to equality), Section 21 (right to life) in terms of its arbitrary character and with regards to the students who would suffer irreparably because of the constantly changing stand by the centre, the petition stated. The petitioner said various associations across the country have to be treated with equality under law and administrative au...

Engineering and medicine have always held high career aspirations for students and big business stakes for private colleges in the two states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. With less number of seats and colleges, medicine ends up becoming more competitive and pricey. More than two lakh engineers and 6,000 medical graduates are churned out annually from these states. Many of the engineering students knock at higher studies in the US or flood the IT market in the country. Medical graduates too look for greener pastures abroad or rough it out in the corporate hospitals or private nursing homes. This has led to a proliferation of private engineering and medical/dental colleges in the states. A good number of these are owned and run by political leaders from all mainline parties, leading corporates/trusts and educationists. Relief to many In this background, it should not be a surprise that the Presidential ordinance keeping at bay the implementation of NEET (The National Elig...

Doctors in government hospitals in Delhi went on a token strike on Thursday demanding revision of the 7th Pay Commission recommendations and an increase in  their salaries and allowances. They also threatened to go on an indefinite strike from June 1 if their demands are not met. “If our demands are not fulfilled even after that, we will go on indefinite strike from June 1,” said Dr Narayan Dabas, convenor, Federation of Resident Doctors Association (FORDA). FORDA, an umbrella organisation of 15,000 resident doctors across 41 government hospitals in the national capital, is demanding an increase in the Non-Practising Allowance (NPA) to 40 percent from the existing 25 percent. In the 7th Pay Commission recommendations it has been reduced to 20 percent. “The basic pay and NPA were merged together while calculating House Rental Allowance (HRA) earlier, but this has now been omitted and HRA will be calculated only with basic pay resulting in less than the desired salary,...

Promulgated by the President of India on 24th May 2016.

Whistle blower Anand Rai and medical student Sanjeev Saxena filed a petition challenging National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) Ordinance in the Supreme Court on Thursday. President Pranab Mukherjee signed the Ordinance on medical entrance test on Tuesday. As per the Ordinance, states can conduct their own exams and students of state board will not have to appear for NEET. However, a petitioner’s lawyer on Tuesday said that the Ordinance will be challenged in Supreme Court as it is against the law and constitution. He said that such an Ordinance has never been issued. The lawyer said, “Will challenge this NEET ordinance in the Supreme Court, this Ordinance is against the law and constitution. This kind of ordinance has never been issued, we will challenge this.”  Union Health Minister J P Nadda on Monday met the President and explained the the issue in detail after which the Ordinance was signed. Following which he said that the Ordinance has given statutory sta...

The National Entrance cum Eligibility Test (NEET) controversy continues to hog the headlines with even the Ordinance issued by the Centre earlier this week failing to put a lid on the debate. Here is the NEET Controversy demystified. What is NEET? The National Entrance cum Eligibility test is a common entrance exam proposed for admission into all Medical and Dental Colleges across India (separately for both for UG and PG). If you want to be a doctor or a dentist in India the Centre says that you will have to take this exam and qualify with a rank. Efforts have been on to have NEET implemented since 2010 and have been hampered by various flip flops by Govt. and by Court orders. Finally last month the SC ordered NEET to be held from this year onwards. The Govt. first said they would implement the Court order and then came up with an ordinance to partially nullify the SC order for this year by giving selective exemptions from NEET for this year alone. Is NEET good for India?...

The CBSE will start the process of online application for the National Eligibility Cum Entrance Test-II (UG) from Thursday for admission to medical and dental courses. The exam will be held on July 24. “The test will be applicable for admissions to the All India quota seats, State Government Quota seats where the state government concerned so opts and Private/Management/NRI Quota seats in all Private Medical/Dental Colleges or any Private/Deemed University,” CBSE said in an official statement. It added that as per the directions of the Supreme Court, left out candidates who could not register or appear in NEET-I (AIPMT-2016) or those having the apprehension that they had not prepared well, subject to submission of an undertaking to give up their candidature for NEET-I, can apply in NEET-II. “The detailed information regarding test, syllabus and eligibility criteria will be available on the website www.aipmt.nic.in,” the statement said. President Pranab Mukherjee gave his as...

The ordinance granting a year’s exemption to  State government institutions from NEET , the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test, provides timely relief to lakhs of students. There was confusion, and anxiety, after the Supreme Court suddenly decided that the test should be the sole basis for medical and dental college admissions from this year onwards. Several State governments objected to NEET, arguing that its implementation would denude them of the power to regulate admission to institutions run by them, as well as to private institutions within their jurisdiction. Some States have their own legislation governing admission and had strong objections to the prescriptive approach underlying NEET. The Centre clearly had no option after the State governments brought pressure on it. The exemption is, however, limited to undergraduate courses of State government institutions. Admission to postgraduate courses and all courses in  private medical and dental colleges will still...

A day after President Pranab Mukherjee approved the ordinance on national eligibility cum entrance test (NEET), Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa thanked Prime Minister Narendra Modi for its "speedy promulgation". But at the same time, she also conveyed to the PM that she was opposed to NEET in Tamil Nadu in the future too.   In a letter to Modi on Wednesday morning, the first after taking over as chief minister, Jayalalithaa said, "I request that necessary measures may be taken to ensure that Tamil Nadu is permitted to continue its existing fair and transparent system of admission to medical colleges and dental colleges in the state and not forced to implement the NEET even in the future."  She thanked the PM for the speedy promulgation of an ordinance providing for exemption from the NEET for this academic year (2016-17) in respect of state Government seats (whether in a Government medical college or in a private medical college) at under grad...

The row over  NEET  fails to die down! Now, a fresh petition is expected to be filed in the Supreme Court to oppose the NEET ordinance. Dubbing as 'lame and frivolous' the government's stand on the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET), Sanklap Charitable Trust will file a fresh petition in the Supreme Court to oppose the ordinance while alleging it is against the Constitution, law and separation of power aimed at eventually stalling reforms in medical fields. Amit Kumar, the lawyer for Sanklap Charitable Trust, says, "The ordinance is also against the balance which is there in our Constitution because the executive cannot overwrite the decision of the judiciary by ordinance that is against the Constitution, adding the decision of the judiciary is final and binding." "What the ordinance is saying that the decision of the Supreme Court will not be enforced for period of one year. This kind of ordinance has never been issued in our history...