Cabinet gives nod for new AIIMS in Bihar\'s Darbhanga

Cabinet gives nod for new AIIMS in Bihar's Darbhanga

Published: 15 September, 2020 19:02 IST | IANS | Mumbai

The total cost for the project will be around Rs. 1264 crore and is likely to be completed within a period of 48 months from the date of the approval by the Government of India

Prime Minister Narendra Modi
Prime Minister Narendra Modi

The Union Cabinet chaired by the Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Tuesday approved establishment of an All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) at Darbhanga in Bihar.

The apex institute will be established under the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY). The Cabinet also approved the creation of a post of Director for this AIIMS.

The total cost for the project will be around Rs. 1264 crore and is likely to be completed within a period of 48 months from the date of the approval by the Government of India.

The Central government said that the new AIIMS will add 100 under-graduate MBBS seats and 60 B.Sc. Nursing seats to the pool of health care professionals in the country. It will also have 15-20 super specialty departments and 750 hospital beds.

The new AIIMS is expected to cater to 2,000 OPD patients every day and around 1,000 IPD patients per month.

Establishment of new AIIMS involves creation of a hospital, teaching block for medical and nursing courses, residential complex and allied facilities and services, broadly on the pattern of AIIMS, New Delhi and other six new AIIMS taken up under Phase-I of PMSSY.

The objective is to establish the new AIIMS as Institution of National Importance for providing quality tertiary healthcare, medical education, nursing education and research in the Region.

The proposed institution shall have a hospital with capacity of 750 beds which will include Emergency and Trauma beds, ICU beds, AYUSH beds, Private beds and Specialty and Super Specialty beds.

Plus, there will be a Medical College, AYUSH Block, auditorium, night shelter, guest house, hostels and residential facilities. The establishment of the new AIIMS will create capital assets for which requisite specialised manpower will be created, based on the pattern of the six new AIIMS, for their operations and maintenance.

The recurring cost on these Institutions shall be met through Grant-in-Aid to them from the Plan Budget Head of PMSSY of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.

"Setting up of new AIIMS would not only transform health education and training but also address the shortfall of health care professionals in the region," the government said in a statement.

The establishment of new AIIMS will serve the dual purpose of providing super specialty health care to the population while also help create a large pool of doctors and other health workers in this region that can be available for primary and secondary level institutions and facilities being created under the National Health Mission (NHM).

"Setting up a new AIIMS in the state will lead to employment-generation for nearly 3,000 persons in various faculty and non-faculty posts. Further, indirect employment generation will take place due to facilities and services such as shopping centres, canteens, etc. coming in the vicinity of the new AIIMS," added the statement.

The construction activity involved for creation of the physical infrastructure for the AIIMS Darbhanga is also expected to generate substantial employment during the construction phase as well. This will fill the gaps in tertiary health-care infrastructure as well as facilities for quality medical education in the State and adjoining areas.

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Cabinet gives nod for new AIIMS in Bihar\'s Darbhanga

Facebook staffer sends 'blood on my hands' memo - BBC News
BBC News

Facebook staffer sends 'blood on my hands' memo

By Jane Wakefield
Technology reporter

Published
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionMany elections in many countries were manipulated by bots, claims the ex-data scientist
Fake accounts have been undermining elections around the world, an ex-Facebook employee has claimed.
In a 6,600-word internal memo to fellow workers, data scientist Sophie Zhang said she made decisions "that affected national presidents" without oversight.
"I have blood on my hands," she wrote in the memo, parts of which were published by Buzzfeed.
In response, Facebook said it was working hard to stop bad actors and inauthentic behaviour.
In her memo, parts of which were published by Buzzfeed without her permission, Ms Zhang said: "In the three years I've spent at Facebook, I've found multiple blatant attempts by foreign national governments to abuse our platform on vast scales to mislead their own citizenry, and caused international news on multiple occasions.
"I have personally made decisions that affected national presidents without oversight, and taken action to enforce against so many prominent politicians globally that I've lost count," she added.
It is reported by Buzzfeed, which said it had shared only those parts of her memo that were in the public interest, that Ms Zhang turned down a $64,000 (£49,000) severance package which she was offered on condition that she did not share her memo internally.
In response, Facebook said: "We've built specialised teams, working with leading experts, to stop bad actors from abusing our systems, resulting in the removal of more than 100 networks for co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour.
"It's highly involved work that these teams do as their full-time remit. Working against co-ordinated inauthentic behaviour is our priority, but we're also addressing the problems of spam and fake engagement.
"We investigate each issue carefully, including those that Ms Zhang raises, before we take action or go out and make claims publicly as a company."
Examples of work she refers to in her memo include:
  • Facebook took nine months to act on information about bots being used to boost president Juan Orlando Hernandez of Honduras
  • In Azerbaijan, the ruling political party used thousands of bots to harass the opposition
  • 10.5 million fake reactions and fans were removed from high-profile politicians in Brazil and the US in the 2018 elections
  • A Nato researcher told Facebook he had seen Russian activity on a high-profile US political figure, which Ms Zhang removed
  • Bot accounts were discovered in Bolivia and Ecuador but the issue was not prioritised due to workload
  • She found and removed 672,000 fake accounts acting against health ministries around the world during the pandemic
  • In India she worked to remove a politically sophisticated network of more than 1,000 actors working to influence local elections in Delhi
image copyrightGetty Images
image captionMark Zuckerberg has admitted his firm was slow to understand political manipulation
"Facebook projects an image of strength and competence to the outside world... but the reality is that many of our actions are slapdash and haphazard accidents."
She said the fact she had to make countless decisions about many different countries took a toll on her health and left her feeling responsible when civil unrest took place in locations that she had not prioritised for action.
Her revelations come just a week after ex-Facebook engineer Ashok Chandwaney accused the firm of profiting from hate.
Carole Cadwalladr, a UK journalist who exposed the Cambridge Analytica scandal, tweeted: "The speed and scale of the damage Facebook is doing to democracies around the world is truly terrifying."
Analysis
By Marianna Spring, Specialist disinformation reporter
This explosive memo confirms concerns that have long been raised about Facebook's ability to tackle foreign interference and disinformation campaigns.
But while most eyes have been on Russian interference in US politics after the 2016 election, this former employee's testimony turns attention to democratic events beyond the West.
Facebook's failure to tackle disinformation in other languages has come under scrutiny during the pandemic - and this new information alleges it has struggled to tackle interference campaigns in non-English speaking nations before.
The memo also raises big concerns about the huge responsibility bestowed on junior Facebook moderators - whose decisions could affect democratic events, political outcomes and people's lives globally.
This will no doubt increase concerns about Facebook's work to tackle interference and disinformation campaigns as the next US election approaches. But it should remind us that Facebook plays a role in democratic events outside the US.

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Cabinet gives nod for new AIIMS in Bihar\'s Darbhanga

Madhya Pradesh Foodgrain Crackdown Faces Selective Action Allegations

Madhya Pradesh Foodgrain Crackdown Faces "Selective Action" Allegations

The Mhow racket diverted food grain and kerosene from targeted PDS into the open market, while in Anuppur, over 2,200 quintals of rice had disappeared from a warehouse rented by the by food and civil supplies corporation

Madhya Pradesh Foodgrain Crackdown Faces 'Selective Action' Allegations

Madhya Pradesh is investigating a public distribution system scam (Representational)

Bhopal:

The Madhya Pradesh government has launched a crackdown after the Prime Minister's Office sought a report on allegations that poor quality rice was sent to the state's tribal heartland via a compromised public distribution system amid the coronavirus lockdown.

NDTV had reported about poor quality rice being given to tribes in Balaghat and Mandla through the public distribution system or PDS.

The state government's action, however, was seen as "selective" as a syndicate comprising transporters, food grain traders and government employees in Mhow was busted, but another one in Anuppur was left unscathed.

Anuppur is the constituency of Food and Civil Supplies Minister Bishaulal Singh. This constituency is among 27 in the state where by-elections are due.

The Mhow racket diverted food grain and kerosene from targeted PDS into the open market, while in Anuppur, over 2,200 quintals of rice had disappeared from a warehouse rented by the by food and civil supplies corporation. No police complaint has been filed even a year after the incident came to light.

According to Indore district administration sources, following a complaint in Mhow sub-division, a warehouse named Harshit Traders, owned by Mohit Agrawal, was raided. Mohit Agrawal is the son of Mhow Congress unit executive president Mohanlal Agrawal, who is also a registered transporter of the state civil supplies corporation.

The raid found over 600 bags of rice meant for supply under the targeted PDS and the bills for those rice bags were found to be forged.

Investigators say the food grain meant for PDS were first sent to fair-price shops. Some of these shops then signed receipts acknowledging they have got the entire quantity of food grain. But 8 to 10 quintals would be taken out of the sealed bags and given to Mr Agrawal's men, who paid the fair-price shop owners, sources said. The fair-price shop owners would then distribute less food grain and kerosene to targeted PDS beneficiaries than what was actually allotted to them.

Initial findings suggest the "stolen" food grain and kerosene could be worth Rs 50 crore, Indore District Collector Manish Singh said.

But since Mohanlal Agrawal has been a registered transporter under targeted PDS for over 15 years, the actual volume of food grain diverted to the open market could be much higher, sources have said.

"A state civil supplies corporation employee and others involved in the scam have been charged," Mr Singh said.

In Anuppur, the constituency of the Food and Civil Supplies Minister, the managing director of the civil supplies corporation had written to the regional manager Ravi Singh instructing him to file a police complaint and recover the food grain. But a year has passed, and the First Information Report (FIR) has not been filed yet, sources said.

In July and August, the lab analysis of 32 samples of PDS rice collected from government depots and one fair-price shop in Balaghat and Mandla by teams of the Consumer Affairs Ministry had found that they were not fit for human consumption, but could be used as feed for livestock, cattle and poultry.

On September 3, after NDTV reported the lapses, Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chouhan handed over the probe in the entire matter to the Economic Offences Wing.

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