Muzaffar Khan

To prevent high-scoring students from blocking seats in medical colleges till the end of the undergraduate and postgraduate admission process, the MCC (Medical Counselling Committee), under the Directorate General of Health Services, has directed all states to provide a database of students

Even as traditional medicines get a fillip from the Centre, demand for some AYUSH courses are on the rise. In Maharashtra alone, Ayurveda seats have gone up by almost 30% in four years and only a handful of them have gone vacant, admission data shows.

A 36-year-old resident of Juhapura has registered a complaint with Vejalpur police alleging he has been receiving extortion calls.

A 22-year-old youth was arrested on Monday for allegedly assaulting and killing Shivlal Pyarelal Bashin (40), a labourer, at Khadki on Sunday night.

Kashmir is experiencing a significant rise in heroin abuse among young people, overwhelming rehabilitation centers. Authorities and political parties emphasize the critical need for collective action to address this issue. The police have intensified efforts, but community cooperation is essential to combat this growing menace and secure a better future for the region.

A rule in the brochure released by the central medical counselling committee (MCC) asking students to forfeit their deposits ranging from Rs 25,000 to Rs 2 lakh for an upgrade from round two to round three has not gone down well with postgraduate aspirants.

Some 1,000 medical and dental seats were missing from the first merit-cum-allotment list released by the state's CET cell on Friday morning, leading to confusion and chaos among tens of thousands of aspirants. These seats were available in the seat matrix, and therefore, students filled it in their preference forms. The missing seats made up for almost 12% of the total 7,344 MBBS seats in government and private colleges under state's counselling process.

Several students appearing for the NEET-UG exam this coming Sunday have complained of getting far-off exam centres, even this year.

In a bid to motivate young doctors to opt for rural service after MBBS, the state has decided to set aside 25% postgraduate seats for in-service doctors. A formal government resolution is awaited.

The central Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) is planning to conduct an additional stray vacancy round to fill around 300 MBBS seats in the all-India quota. Medical admissions are over across the country and this would be a special round to avoid wastage of seats, said an official from the ministry of health. Some of the vacant seats are in sought-after government colleges.

Activists are concerned about students blocking seats at multiple colleges with all three admission rounds for AYUSH (ayurveda, homeopathy, unani) going on simultaneously this year. In many cases, students have been allotted two seats in the same college, through the state as well as the all-India process, which makes it a thoughtless exercise, say parents.

With students bagging higher National Eligibility and Entrance Test (NEET) scores this year, cut-offs for MBBS in sought-after government colleges have risen by 25 to 35 marks in the first round of admissions in comparison to the previous year. GS Medical College (KEM Hospital), the top choice of medical aspirants, for instance, closed the first round of admissions at 665 compared with 638 in 2019 and LT Medical College (Sion Hospital) at 644 against 610 last year. Marks scored in NEET are out of a total of 720. In government colleges, cut-offs rarely see a significant drop in subsequent rounds.

Former Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari, 63, who is Co-Chairman of the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP), will now remain in the custody of the National Accountability Bureau (NAB) till July 2, the Dawn reported.

Four persons were arrested for allegedly stabbing to death a 40-year-old man and injuring his sister in Dindoli on Tuesday. One accused in the case is absconding.

Police have arrested a third-year law student of Agra College on Sunday for allegedly raping and murdering an eight-year-old girl