Allied Healthcare (GAHC)

Nita Ambani, Founder and chairperson of Reliance announced a massive healthcare project of a 2000-bed medical city in Mumbai, Maharashtra. In the 48th Annual General Meeting on August 29, of Reliance Industries, she emphasised this ambitious new healthcare initiative which will revolutionize medical care in India. This facility will not only  be a new hospital but a center of medical innovation managed by artificial intelligence-based diagnostics, advanced technology, and state-of-the-art medical services. 

48th AGM Announcement 

Nita Ambani stated at the AGM, “We hope our country will be proud of it, and the world will look up to it.” This facility is aiming to align with India's growing push towards integrating AI and precision medicine in healthcare delivery, which shall further enhance the quality and accessibility for all sections of the society. She also described the medical city as “India’s new beacon of healthcare innovation,” emphasizing that it will merge “AI-powered diagnostics, cutting-edge medical technology, and some of the finest doctors from India and the world” to elevate standards of care. 

She expressed the Foundation’s promise of holistic and compassionate care by opening “Jeevan,” a new wing focused on chemotherapy and immunotherapy, with a particular focus on pediatric cancer. “This wing will be designed to heal our little ones with world-class care and a mother’s warmth,” she said, highlighting their focus on vulnerable groups. 

This massive medical city will represent Reliance Foundation’s longstanding philosophy of “Respect for Life,” building on the decade-long legacy of the Sir HN Reliance Foundation Hospital which has treated over 3.3 million patients and is ranked among India’s top multi-specialty hospitals. 

What Will the Medical City Have? 

Beyond patient care, the Reliance medical city will house a transformative medical college aimed at nurturing future generations of doctors to serve India and the global community. This two-purpose emphasis on state-of-the-art care and education highlights a mission of democratizing the treatment of the best healthcare and thus making healthcare affordable and available to all socio-economic groups.

The integration of AI in diagnostics and treatment pathways marks a significant leap forward for Indian healthcare infrastructure. AI-powered tools will enhance early detection, precision treatment, and streamline workflow, enabling doctors to deliver personalized medicine efficiently. Emphasis on technology and low-cost care also tackles the two issues facing India in healthcare quality and accessibility, which is expected to become a $372 billion industry by 2027. 

Health Mission Of India

Reliance Foundation’s medical city aligns with India’s national health mission to expand healthcare infrastructure and promote innovation in medicine. It also resonates with global trends, as healthcare systems worldwide increasingly leverage AI and digital technologies to improve outcomes and reduce costs.

In short, the project represents a new dawn in cooperative healthcare and health education in India, a combination of innovation, empathy, and accessibility. As Reliance Foundation steps forward with this visionary initiative, it sets a benchmark for philanthropic investment in healthcare, inspiring others to envision a future where high-quality medical care is within everyone’s reach. 

In a noteworthy policy decision meant to aid healthcare trainees, the Delhi government on Tuesday cleared a huge hike in the nursing interns' monthly stipend. The new stipend will be ₹13,150, from the previous ₹500.

Chief Minister Rekha Gupta announced the revision after a Cabinet meeting, terming the modification as "long overdue" and a step toward acknowledging the key role played by nursing interns in the city's healthcare system.

The raised stipend will be introduced with immediate effect and will accrue to all deserving nursing interns who are in training now," Gupta stated. "Not only does this bring down the financial burden on students but also brings Delhi up to mark with the central government's standards for healthcare stipends. 

The move is likely to help hundreds of interns working in government hospitals and nursing schools in the capital. The earlier stipend had not seen a hike for years, and criticism from health workers and student groups was widespread.

The hike matches Delhi with other states that have already adjusted their assistance for trainee doctors in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, when nursing staff filled frontline positions.

During the same Cabinet meeting, the government also approved the launch of Delhi Mitra App, which is a public grievance redressal system to facilitate citizen complaints across departments. The app is meant to create a single digital interface for processing problems related to civic services, infrastructure, and governance.

The two announcements are indicative of the government's increased emphasis on public welfare and e-governance and responding to longstanding requests in the healthcare education sector.

Do you have the nasty habit of staying glued to your desk for hours at a stretch, barely standing up as you burn through meeting upon meeting, answering emails, entering spreadsheets and putting pitch decks together for presentation? There's always something, something bigger to fry, that keeps you tied to your desk. On certain days, you may even have lunch there, rarely managing to get time to shift from it.

Dr Jeremy London, MD, a cardiothoracic surgeon who shares advice on improving cardiovascular health and creating awareness regularly on Instagram, on 8th August, proposed 4 methods to healthify your desk job.

Will exercising later reduce the damage of sitting for long hours at desk?

Most of the time, most individuals have the notion that prolonged sitting can be compensated for with physical exercise later in the day, as long as one is physically active. Nevertheless, Dr Jeremy referenced a broad study in 2015 which showed that prolonged sitting even while exercising can lead to many diseases.

He said, "There was a seminal paper in the Annals of Medicine that showed that sitting for long periods, even if you do exercise, increases your risk for type 2 diabetes, metabolic syndrome, cardiovascular disease and an increase in all-cause mortality that we have now referred to as the sitting disease."

4 tips to render desk jobs healthy

When you are working towards your career goals and pinpoint, your work must not be on the cost of health conditions lowering your life expectancy, especially from sitting for long periods. Simple habits can help you put your health first when working. Four simple habits to add to your work schedule were indicated by Dr Jeremy London:

Stand up and take a few minutes of walking every hour

Take a break and get up every 30 to 60 minutes and walk for two or three minutes.

Do 10 air squats, this will decrease cortisol and increase circulation.

Cook your own lunch

Prepare your own lunch by meal prepping one or two times per week.

Decreases remaining on the nutritional plan and fighting the temptation of ultra-processed food.

Stay hydrated

Keep a water bottle with you and drink throughout the day, even if you are thirsty. Even slight dehydration will cause a decrease in concentration and an increase in fatigue.

Break time

Take a break for your brain, find breathing exercises that you're comfortable with, a mindfulness class or just go outside.

This will restart the nervous system.

Born and bred in Odisha's Sambalpur district, in the impoverished tribal interior where dreams usually get buried under poverty, 19-year-old Leeza Majhi has forged a trail few can even dream of. The apple of every villager's eye Leeza has not just cracked the extremely competitive NEET exam but also bagged a seat at Sundargarh Government Medical College and Hospital—a dream that now seems elusive, even fragile.

To Leeza, the free hostel at Kasturba Gandhi Balika Vidyalaya (KGBV), Bamra,, disciplined routine, and caring environment didn't merely provide an escape from distress—they provided direction. "At KGBV, I wasn't a mere student. I was someone whom people had faith in," she remembers. The school became her compass, transforming mute dreams into a steadfast quest for a white coat and stethoscope.

"Having a dream to be a doctor was still in my mind at that time," Leeza says. "But I was doubtful, then teachers believed in me even before I did."

She moved to OAV Iconic in Bhubaneswar with 82% marks in Class 10 from Odisha Adarsha Vidyalaya (OAV) to pursue science studies. There too, she battled beyond textbooks. Home-distance, coping with competitive syllabus, and maintaining show on pocket money wasn't easy—but she managed. All the battles were worth it as she got 81.6% in Class 12 and cleared NEET just a few months later.

What is surprising about Leeza's success is not the result—but her determination in the face of institutional problems. One of the bureaucrats at KGBV summed up her success as a "collective victory." "Leeza's narrative shows that poorest of girls are able to dream big with good guidance. She is a role model for other girls awaiting her village and beyond."

Now on the verge of becoming the first-generation doctor in her family, Leeza longs to go home and care for her people. "Lots of folks where I come from still think old-fashioned medicine is good. I want to give them good health care," she whispers.

In an era when faces so easily get washed out of the headlines, Leeza's is a soft reminder: at times the greatest heroes can be discovered in the most overlooked of areas.

Medical education seats in India are expected to rise significantly this academic year, with the National Medical Commission (NMC) anticipating a combined increase of close to 8,000 undergraduate and postgraduate seats nationwide. As per NMC chairperson Dr Abhijat Sheth, the Assessment and Rating Board had already initiated inspections on institutions that have applied for increased capacity, and the process was still on track despite a recent corruption investigation.

NEET-UG counselling has already started, with the first phase completed and the second phase likely to start from August 25. There were fears of the total seats available this year reducing, following the discovery by the Central Bureau of Investigation of a purported group of officials of the Union Health Ministry, members of the NMC, intermediaries, and representatives of private institutions who engaged in illegal manipulation of the regulatory environment of medical colleges.

The NMC then put on hold all proposals for developing new courses and increasing seats until the time when the agency carried out its investigations. The FIR filed in July implicated 34 people, eight of whom were Union health ministry officials, a National Health Authority official and five doctors who worked on NMC inspection teams.

"Along with my appointment, the president of Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB) also has been appointed. We have taken on board completion of inspection of UG medical seats on a priority basis and the assessments are underway," Dr Sheth stated. "We expect an addition of approximately around 8,000 seats (UG and PG seats combined) based on the applications we have received in this academic year," he added.

Currently, the nation has 1,18,098 undergraduate seats, with a half-and-half division between government (59,782) and private (58,316) colleges. 53,960 postgraduate seats are available, of which 30,029 are in public colleges and 23,931 in private colleges.

Even as Dr Sheth accepted that some UG seats might have been cut back in response to the CBI inquiry, he underlined that the general availability was poised to grow after inspections are completed. "Due to the continuing (CBI) inquiry, numbers of UG seats might have decreased. But overall, the number of seats is ultimately going to go up by 8,000 or even more after the final inspection process ends," he added.

The NMC has also started inspection of colleges that had applied for new postgraduate seats and is sure these will be included in the counselling round in September. "We are hopeful that new seats will also be included in the PG counselling process," said Dr Sheth.

Coming to the National Exit Test (NExT) for final year MBBS students, Dr Sheth stated the NMC supported the proposal in principle but stressed consensus-building prior to implementation. "NExT is a new idea no doubt but there are so many questions left unanswered. We must make sure that this model is compatible with the medical education that we are offering to our students," he said.

He further said that the ministry had been pursuing the issue for the past two years and that the concerns of students had to be addressed in a complete manner. "Students' fear has to be removed and their confidence level for this exam has to be developed. It has to be made aware that this exam is not going to be tough to them but it is going to be a fair test to them," he added.

Dr Sheth also spoke of concerns regarding the quality of medical graduates during the steep increase in medical colleges since 2014, emphasizing that quantity and quality have to go together. "As we increase the number of colleges, we will have to see to it that the quality of the education does not get diluted," he said.

The NMC, he added, was making its accreditation system robust to ensure faculty, infrastructure and clinical material standards. "In addition, we have undertaken a process of phydigital model where we are pushing our institution to embrace a new solution beyond physical education involving skill and virtual education to deal with competency based training and digital and e-learning solutions in order to achieve uniformity in medical training across the board," Dr Sheth explained.

He further stated that integration with private and public hospital networks was being sought for broadening access to clinical material. "We want to take this chance. to ensure that we are able to access improved clinical resources for the budding medical students," he continued, further stating that the NMC aimed at sticking to its plan of implementing the expected reforms.

The University Grants Commission (UGC) has instructed all higher education institutions (HEIs) to discontinue the offering of programmes in healthcare and allied fields through Open and Distance Learning (ODL) or online mode from the July-August 2025 academic session. The directive is a follow-up to the suggestion made by the 24th Distance Education Bureau Working Group meeting that was convened on April 22 this year and passed during the UGC's 592nd meeting on July 23.

The prohibition is effective on courses under the National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act, 2021. These include Microbiology, Psychology, Food and Nutrition Science, Biotechnology, Clinical Nutrition and Dietetics.

As per the circular, institutions already having the approval to operate these programmes will have it withdrawn by UGC. Universities and colleges have also been directed to not take in students into these programmes from the academic session of 2025-26.

Where a programme has more than one specialisation, like a bachelor's in arts with majors in English, Hindi, History, Political Science, Philosophy, Sociology or Psychology, only the healthcare specialisation will be phased out. Other non-healthcare topics under the same degree will not be affected.

The decision comes amid concerns over quality standards in professional training. Former Professor and head of the Psychology Department of the University of Mumbai, Satishchandra, said, “The demand for psychology has gone up in recent years, leading to many private and public institutions offering it. But in several parts of the country, they have failed to maintain the quality of education. This decision will help check such practices.”

Welcoming the move, Vivek Belhekar, who heads the Psychology Department in the MU, said, "This is a step in the right direction and will benefit society as a whole. Clinical psychology needs intensive practical training. According to the guidelines of the Rehabilitation Council of India, we must have a 2:1 ratio between students and teachers. We cannot deliver such training in distance education mode.

But he also referred to the issue of there not being enough seats available nationwide. "Given the growing need for clinical psychology, the UGC or the top-most body needs to devise a plan which can enable public universities to increase opportunities, perhaps through a systematic online model," he said.