More medical seats required: VIT Chancellor

The Centre, State governments, courts and the Medical Council of India (MCI) should work together to boost medical education, including the creation of more medical seats every year, VIT founder-chancellor G. Viswanathan said on Tuesday.

In his presidential address at the 31st Annual Alumni Meet of the VIT Alumni Association (VITAA), he said that around 22 lakh students aspire to pursue MBBS each year, yet only 1.25 lakh – 1.28 lakh medical seats are available in the country. “The situation is no different in other professional streams such as IITs and NITs. This should change to meet the aspirations of young India,” he said.  

The Chancellor said that the New National Education Policy 2020 aims to increase Gross Enrolment Ratio (GER) in higher education to 50%. At present, around four crore students are enrolled in higher studies in the country. In other words, around eight crore students should pursue higher education to achieve the GER target set by the Centre. It required a huge investment by the government to achieve the target in higher education, he said. 

He highlighted the role of alumni, who can work in private industry, public sector or administration, in eradicating tax evasion, which remains a national malaise, in the country. They should set an example for other taxpayers in the rest of the country as prompt tax payers, he said.

On the occasion, awards were presented in various categories such as education and research, corporate employment, entrepreneurship, social development, young alumni achiever, and Chancellor’s Best Performer, to recognize outstanding alumni contributions.

Sankar Viswanathan and Sekar Viswanathan, vice-presidents of VIT, C.K. Ranganathan, Chairman and Managing Director of CavinKare, were present.