April 26, 1979, Forty Years AgoMedical Revolution
The Union government has prepared the draft of a national medical education policy which, if adopted, will not only radically change the pattern of medical education but the modes of medical treatment. The joint conference of the Central Councils of Health and Family Welfare, which is starting its three-day session here on April 27, will consider the draft. The draft policy, which has just been finalised, aims to thoroughly restructure the pattern of medical education so that it may be “in tune with the needs and aspirations of the Indian community”. It wants to take medical education out of its city and hospital-oriented irrelevance, and put it in the villages where it really belongs. The draft says the present system of medical education is heavily hospital-oriented and has “very little relevance to actual Indian situations.”
A-I Under Scanner
The Parliamentary Committee on Public Undertakings has unearthed serious irregularities committed by Air India officials and some officials of the Ministry of Tourism and Civil Aviation to benefit foreign airlines. Apart from officials of Air India, suspicion has also been voiced about an agreement signed by the former Civil Aviation Secretary R P Naik with the British government in 1977. According to this agreement, Air India paid British Airways a lump sum of Rs 1 crore. The committee held this agreement was signed in “undue haste”. “This smacks of malpractice and requires investigation for necessary action,” the committee report says.
Pressure On Pak
President Carter has reportedly assured External Affairs Minister A B Vajpayee that the US is doing everything to persuade Pakistan not to manufacture atomic weapons. President Carter has sought India’s cooperation in this regard. At his meeting with the president, Vajpayee pointed out that India’s policy was not to make nuclear weapons.
