Age is just a number. Odisha's Jay Kishore Pradhan cracking the NEET exam this year is a testament to this saying. Pradhan had appeared for the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test (NEET) in September this year, secured a good rank and qualified for VIMSAR.
The 64-year-old retired banker says he wants to serve people as long as he is alive. Pradhan, who will be around 70 when he completes his MBBS says, "I have no commercial intentions going ahead. I want to serve people till I am alive."
The former SBI official took admission at the state-run Veer Surendra Sai University of Technology in the PwD reservation category. "It is one of the rare events in the history of medical education in the country. Pradhan has set an example by getting admission as a medical student at such an age," VIMSAR Director Lalit Mehra told PTI.
Pradhan's motivation to sit for the NEET exam and enroll for the MBBS course came from the demise of one of his twin daughters. Though 25 is the upper age limit for appearing in the NEET exam, a writ petition filed in this regard in the Supreme Court in 2018 helped Pradhan take a shot at the medical exam. Since the case is still sub judice, all candidates above 25 were allowed to take admission till any further developments.