Medical Council of India (MCI)

The Medical Council of India (MCI) is a statutory body for establishing uniform and high standards and norms of medical education in India. It grants recognition of medical qualifications, gives accreditation to medical schools, grants registration to medical practitioners and monitors medical practices in India. Recently it has suffered from the following problems:

>There have been cases of colleges getting accreditation on basis of money without proper checks, even if facilities and faculties exist only on paper. This is due to vested corporate interests.
>The president of the MCI was arrested on charges of corruption raising questions on its efficacy.
>Cases of medical seats being sold in private institutions raise questions on the quality of the students. Such students are not chosen on merit and hence may indulge in malpractices like bribery, improper treatment, etc.
>Lack of transparency on its functioning has reduced its accountability thus giving leeway to corrupt practices.

REFORMS NEEDED:

>Separation of its functions, i.e. a separate body for accreditation (recommended National Medical Council), another for undergraduate and postgraduate training, assessment of institutions and medical ethics.
>Its members should include people from non medical fields and community health experts, so that public interests are promoted.
>Stricter accreditation standards with regular monitoring to ensure only quality institutions get accredited.
>Strict monitoring mechanisms to ensure that there is no corruption in medical schools.
>Transparency through publishing reports in order to increase accountability.
>An exit test, to ensure uniform standards among medical professionals can be introduced.

With these reforms, the quality of medical institutions, practitioners and medical practices will be improved.

e-commerce recent regulations

India e-commerce industry is expected to become a $ 100 billion industry by 2020, and looking at its paradigm shift on the way sales was done it demanded strict regulation of e-commerce entities.

#E-market companies:
Negatives: 
- >Marketplace player cannot allow one vendor or its group companies to account for more than 25 per cent of sales through its platform, which will try to separate vendors from market players and will force marketplaces to make changes in their businesses involving costs.
- >The norm that market players cannot directly or indirectly influence the sale price of goods and services and shall maintain a level playing field is very ambiguous any paves way for reducing discounts and discretionary tendency of govt officials.

Positives: 
- > The guideline saying - sellers will be solely responsible for warranties and guarantees, provide protection to market players. 
- >It will help Small e-market companies viz-a-viz large Companies like Amazon, Flipkart etc

#Consumers: 
Negatives: 
- >Vaguely worded norm which prohibits ventures from “directly or indirectly” influencing the sale price of goods. This will act as a deterrent for discounts which will considerably impact consumer’s value for money expectations.
- >Restrict consumer choices as vendors are restricted.
- >The retail lobby can further demand of restrictions on e-commerce which is not in consumer interest.

Positives: 
- >Tightening control on e-commerce will streamline the sector and increase consumer confidence.

Though the rules are a step in right direction but need to bring more transparency as the sector largely depends on foreign investments for logistics development and is still running under losses as it is still under competition for market acquisition.

‘किसी को उदास देख कर’ | साहिर लुधियानवी

तुम्हे उदास सी पाता हूं मैं कई दिन से,
न जाने कौन से सदमे उठा रही हो तुम?

वो शोखियां वो तबस्सुम वो कहकहे न रहे
हर एक चीज को हसरत से देखती हो तुम।

छुपा-छुपा के खमोशी मे अपनी बेचैनी,
खुद अपने राज़ की तशहीर बन गई हो तुम।

मेरी उम्मीद अगर मिट गई तो मिटने दो,
उम्मीद क्या है बस इक पेशो-पस है कुछ भी नहीं।

मेरी हयात की गमगीनियों क गम न करो,
गमे-हयात गमे-यक-नफ़स है कुछ भी नहीं।

तुम अपने हुस्न की र‍अनाईयों पे रहम करो,
वफ़ा फ़रेब है तूले-हवस है कुछ भी नहीं।

मुझे तुम्हारे तगाफ़ुल से क्यों शिकायत हो,
मेरी फ़ना मेरे एहसास क तकाज़ा है।

मै जानता हूं कि दुनिया क खौफ़ है तुमको,
मुझे खबर है, ये दुनिया अज़ीब दुनिया है।

यहां हयात के पर्दे मे मौत पलती है,
शिकस्ते-साज की आवाज रुहे-नग्मा है।

मुझे तुम्हारी जुदाई का कोई रंज़ नहीं,
मेरे खयाल की दुनिया मे मेरे पास हो तुम।

ये तुमने ठीक कहा है, तुम्हे मिला ना करूं
मगर मुझे ये बता दो कि क्यों उदास हो तुम?

खफ़ा न होन मेरी ज़ुर्रते-तखातुब पर
तुम्हे खबर है मेरी जिंदगी की आस हो तुम? 

मेरा तो कुच भी नहीं है, मै रो के जी लूंगा,
मगर खुदा के लिये तुम असीरे-गम न रहो,

हुआ ही क्या जो तुम को जमने से छीन लिया
यहां पे कौन हुआ है किसी का, सोचो तो,

मुझे कसम है मेरी दुख भरी जवानी की
मै खुश हूं, मेरी मुहब्बत के फ़ूल ठुकरा दो।

मै अपनी रूह की हर एक खुशी मिटा लूंगा,
मगर तुम्हारी मसर्रत मिटा नहीं सकता।

मै खुद को मौत के हांथों मे सौंप सकता हूं,
मगर ये बारे-मसाइब उठा नहीं सकता।

तुम्हारे गम के सिवा और भी तो गम हैं मुझे
निजात जिनमे मै इक लहज़ा पा नहीं सकता।

ये ऊंचे ऊंचे मकानों के ड्योढियों के तले,
हर एक गाम पे भूखे भिखारियों की सदा।

हर एक घर मे ये इफ़लास और भूख का शोर
हर एक सिम्त ये इन्सानियत की आहो बका।

ये करखानों मे लोहे क शोरो-गुल जिसमे,
है दफ़्न लाखों गरीबो की रूह का नग्मा।

ये शाहराहों पे रंगीन साडियों की झलक,
ये झोपडों मे गरीबों की बेकफ़न लाशें।

ये माल-रोड पे कारों की रेल-पेल का शोर,
ये पटरियों पे गरीबों के ज़र्द-रू बच्चे।

गली-गली मे ये बिकते हुए जवां चेहरे,
हसीन आंखों मे अफ़सुर्दगी सी छाई हुई।

ये जंग और ये मेरे वतन के शोख जवां,
खरीदी जाती है उठती जवानियां जिनकी।

ये बात-बात पे कनूनों-जाब्ते की गिरफ़्त,
ये ज़िल्लतें, ये गुलामी, ये दौरे मज़बूरी।

ये गम बहुत है मेरी ज़िन्दगी मिटाने को, 
उदास रह के मेरे दिल को और रंज न दो।

फ़िर न कीजे मीरी गुस्ताख-निगाही का गिला
देखिये आपने फ़िर प्यारे से देखा मुझको।

तारुफ़ रोग हो जाए..... साहिर लुधियानवी

तारुफ़ रोग हो जाए तो उसको भूलना बेहतर,

ताल्लुक बोझ बन जाए तो उसको तोड़ना अच्छा ।

वो अफ़साना जिसे अन्जाम तक लाना न हो मुमकिन,

उसे एक ख़ूबसूरत मोड़ देकर छोड़ना अच्छा ॥

खून अपना हो या पराया हो | साहिर लुधियानवी

ख़ून अपना हो या पराया हो
नस्ले-आदम का ख़ून है आख़िर
जंग मग़रिब में हो कि मशरिक में
अमने आलम का ख़ून है आख़िर

बम घरों पर गिरें कि सरहद पर
रूहे-तामीर ज़ख़्म खाती है
खेत अपने जलें या औरों के
ज़ीस्त फ़ाक़ों से तिलमिलाती है

टैंक आगे बढें कि पीछे हटें
कोख धरती की बाँझ होती है
फ़तह का जश्न हो कि हार का सोग
जिंदगी मय्यतों पे रोती है

इसलिए ऐ शरीफ इंसानो
जंग टलती रहे तो बेहतर है
आप और हम सभी के आँगन में
शमा जलती रहे तो बेहतर है।

अभी न जाओ छोड़ कर के दिल अभी भरा नहीं | साहिर लुधियानवी

अभी न जाओ छोड़ कर के दिल अभी भरा नहीं 
अभी अभी तो आई हो अभी अभी तो
अभी अभी तो आई हो, बहार बनके छाई हो
हवा ज़रा महक तो ले, नज़र ज़रा बहक तो ले
ये शाम ढल तो ले ज़रा ये दिल सम्भल तो ले ज़रा
मैं थोड़ी देर जी तो लूँ, नशे के घूँट पी तो लूँ
नशे के घूँट पी तो लूँ
अभी तो कुछ कहाँअहीं, अभी तो कुछ सुना नहीं
अभी न जाओ छोड़कर के दिल अभी भरा नहीं

सितारे झिलमिला उठे, सितारे झिलमिला उठे, चराग़ जगमगा उठे
बस अब न मुझको टोकना
बस अब न मुझको टोकना, न बढ़के राह रोकना
अगर मैं रुक गई अभी तो जा न पाऊँगी कभी
यही कहोगे तुम सदा के दिल अभी नहीं भरा
जो खत्म हो किसी जगह ये ऐसा सिलसिला नहीं
अभी नहीं अभी नहीं
नहीं नहीं नहीं नहीं
अभी न जाओ छोड़कर के दिल अभी भरा नहीं

अधूरी आस, अधूरी आस छोड़के, अधूरी प्यास छोड़के
जो रोज़ यूँही जाओगी तो किस तरह निभाओगी
कि ज़िंदगी की राह में, जवाँ दिलों की चाह में
कई मुक़ाम आएंगे जो हम को आज़माएंगे
बुरा न मानो बात का ये प्यार है गिला नहीं
हाँ, यही कहोगे तुम सदा के दिल अभी नहीं भर
हाँ, दिल अभी भरा नहीं
नहीं नहीं नहीं नहीं
------

दुख और सुख के रास्ते, बने हैं सब के वास्ते
जो ग़म से हार जाओगे, तो किस तरह निभाओगे
खुशी मिले हमें के ग़म, खुशी मिले हमे के ग़म
जो होगा बाँट लेंगे हम
मुझे तुम आज़माओ तो
ज़रा नज़र मिलाओ तो,  ज़रा नज़र मिलाओ तो
ये जिस्म दूर हैं मगर
दिलों में फ़ासला नहीं
जहाँ में ऐसा कौन है, कि जिसको ग़म मिला नहीं \- २

तुम्हारे प्यार की क़सम,  तुम्हारा ग़म है मेरा ग़म
न यूँ बुझे बुझे रहो,  जो दिल की बात है कहो
जो मुझ से भी छुपाओगे,  जो मुझ से भी छुपाओगे
तो फिर किसे बताओगे
मैं कोइ गैर तो नहीं
दिलाऊँ किस तरह यक़ीं, दिलाऊँ किस तरह यक़ीं
कि तुम से मैं जुदा नहीं
मुझ से तुम जुदा नहीं

तुम से मैं जुदा नहीं,  मुझ से तुम जुदा नहीं

तुम से मैं जुदा नहीं,  मुझ से तुम जुदा नहीं ...

Use This Mind Game to Achieve Your Goals

In setting a self-improvement goal, strategic assessment of your chances of success can be a huge motivator, says philosopher Jim Stone, Ph.D., who develops personal productivity software and workshops.

Say you want to give up smoking (or another vice): You’d typically think, If I smoke, I have failed. But if you mentally open yourself to many ways not to smoke (versus that one singular failure scenario), you view success as likelier: I will do push-ups instead of smoking, I will call a friend instead of smoking, I will read a magazine instead of smoking, or I will drink coffee instead of smoking. In other words, there’s only one way to fail and so many ways to succeed. Your success chances seem much stronger, and you harness the power of self-fulfilling prophecy.

The same mindset can aid the launch of a positive habit, such as logging 20 minutes of exercise a day. Think of failure as I won’t get 20 minutes of exercise today. Then embrace the many favorable outcomes (I will walk for 20 minutes at lunch, I will jog around the block twice before breakfast, I will ride my stationary bicycle during my favorite sitcom, or I will review my printouts while I walk the treadmill at the gym), and your willpower—and your odds—improve.

Let your mind play tricks on you… in a good way!

- See more at: http://www.success.com/article/use-this-mind-game-to-achieve-your-goals#sthash.9fIaRpW6.dpuf

Public Health Policies

The Minister for Finance and Corporate Affairs and Information and Broadcasitng, Shri Arun Jaitley has announced a New Health Protection Scheme in the Budget 2016-17. In his Budget address in the Parliament today, the Finance Minister expressed concern that a serious illness of family member(s) causes severe stress on the financial condition of poor and economically weak families, shaking the foundation of their economic security. In order to help such families, the Government will launch a new health protection scheme which will provide health cover up-to rupees one lakh per family, the Finance Minister said. For Senior citizens of the age 60 years and above belonging to this category, an additional top-up package up to Rs.30,000 will be provided. 

The Finance Minister Shri Jaitley stated that making quality medicines available at affordable prices has been a key challenge. “We will reinvigorate the supply of generic drugs. 3,000 stores under Prime Minister’s Jan Aushadhi Yojana will be opened during 2016-17”, the Minister added. 

About 2.2 lakh new patients of End Stage Renal Disease get added in India every year resulting in additional demand for 3.4 Crore dialysis sessions. With approximately 4,950 dialysis centres in India, largely in the private sector and concentrated in the major towns, the demand is only half met. Every dialysis session costs about Rs.2,000 – an annual expenditure of more than Rs. 3 lakh. Besides, most families have to undertake frequent trips, often over long distances, to access dialysis services, incurring heavy travel costs and loss of wages. 

To address this situation, Shri Arun Jaitley proposed to start a ‘National Dialysis Services Programme’. Funds will be made available through PPP Mode under the National Health Mission, to provide dialysis services in all district hospitals. To reduce the cost, the Finance Minister proposed to exempt certain parts of dialysis equipment from basic customs duty, excise/CVD and SAD. 

S.R. Bommai v. Union of India case | Clarity after Bommai

The destruction of the Babri Masjid saw P.V. Narasimha Rao’s government dismiss four State governments lead by the BJP. In 1994, the challenge to this dismissal and earlier impositions of President’s Rule came to be decided by a nine-judge bench in the S.R. Bommai v. Union of India case.

The judgment held that the President’s satisfaction in the invocation of Article 356 could be inquired into by the courts. It upheld the dismissal of the BJP governments to protect secularism, which was part of the Constitution’s basic structure. It held that the President was required to act on objective material and that Article 356 could only be resorted to when there was a breakdown of constitutional machinery as distinguished from an ordinary breakdown of law and order.

The court also held that in no case should a State Assembly be dissolved without Parliament approving the proclamation, and that a test of numerical strength could only be conducted on the floor of the Assembly and not outside it. Relying on a Pakistani Supreme Court decision in Nawaz Sharif’s case, the judgment ruled that an improperly dismissed government could be restored to office. Thus, during Narasimha Rao’s minority government, citizens saw the Supreme Court becoming a strong bulwark of constitutional right and propriety.

The doctrine in Bommai came to be applied by the Supreme Court in the Bihar case of Rameshwar Prasad & Ors v. Union of India . In 2005, Governor Buta Singh, after an inconclusive election, recommended the dissolution of the State Assembly, without it being convened even once. The Court struck down the imposition as unconstitutional but refused to restore the Assembly because another election had already been ordered. Governor Buta Singh resigned in the wake of the judgment.

Since 1994, the instances of the imposition of President’s rule have dwindled considerably. It is only in recent times that a spurt has been seen, and more instances seem to be on the horizon. This year, the Supreme Court has heard for nearly a month the challenge to the imposition of Article 356 in Arunachal Pradesh. Here, a fresh alignment of forces may have overtaken any relief that was possible at the hands of the court. The Uttarakhand case too is soon likely to reach the Supreme Court. The doctrines and parameters of judicial review have already been set out. The question is of the willingness of the judiciary to cut through the political thicket in time to be of consequence to the political process. A majority government may well be tempted to brave an adverse verdict in the distant future, if there is an immediate gain of adding another outpost to the empire.

Our quasi-federal Constitution with unitary features has from time to time seen centrifugal forces overpower centripetal accelerations. But a unitary empire, where Centre and States are always in political tandem, is not what the Constitution makers envisaged. Willing partnerships cannot be turned into forced marriages. India that is Bharat was to be a Union of States. It is now sought to be turned into a state of Union. The Union government may well heed William Butler Yeats’s apocalyptic warning of a world where: “Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold;/ Mere anarchy is loosed upon the world,/ The blood-dimmed tide is loosed, and everywhere/ The ceremony of innocence is drowned;/ The best lack all conviction, while the worst/ Are full of passionate intensity.”

Sanjay Hegde is a senior advocate of the

Holocaust and Anti-Zionism vs Anti-Semitism

Holocaust was a genocide in which about 6 million Jews were killed by Nazis led by Hitler.

Reasons for Holocaust :-

1. Racist attitude of Nazis :- The Nazis believed that their Aryan Race (Europeans who were not Jewish, Romany or Slavic) was superior to others.
2. Stab-in-the-back theory :- It was believed that the Jews had sabotaged the war effort which led to the defeat of Germany in WW1.
3. Centuries of Anti-Semitism :- The Jews had been persecuted for a long time. Centuries of hatred for Jews made it easy it carry out their killing as people turned a blind eye towards their plight.
4. A scapegoat :- The humiliation of Germany in Treaty of Versailles and later its economic slowdown and hyperinflation had to blamed to someone. Thus the Jews were used as a scapegoat.

Anti-Zionism vs Anti-Semitism

1. Anti-Zionism is opposing Zionism which is a nationalism of Jews that supports a Jewish nation state to be established in Israel. However Anti-Semitism is a prejudiced hatred against Jews just because they are Jews.
2. A person can be anti-Zionist without being an anti-Semite in the sense that s/he can oppose the creation of Israel without having to hate Jews.
3. A person can be anti-Semitic without having to be anti-Zionist in the sense that s/he can support the creation of Israel to deport Jews there as s/he hates them.