Cabinet approves upgrading 24 hospitals to medical colleges

The Union Cabinet on Wednesday approved the proposal to upgrade 24 existing district and referral hospitals to medical colleges. The cabinet also approved increasing 18,058 UG and PG seats in medical colleges.

A proposal to set up 248 Nursing and Midwifery schools has also been approved.

In the budget presented by Arun Jaitley on February 1, the Finance Minister had stressed on boosting medical education and healthcare in India.

"We will set up 24 new government medical colleges and hospitals by upgrading existing district hospitals in the country. This will ensure at least one medical college for every three parliamentary constituencies and at least one government medical college in each state," Jaitley had said in his budget speech.

The Union Cabinet also approved offering of 60 oil and gas fields of ONGC and OIL in the second auction of Discovered Small Field round. Out of the 60 fields, 22 were discovered by Oil and Natural Gas Corp (ONGC), 5 belong to Oil India Ltd and 12 are relinquished fields/discoveries from blocks offered in bids rounds under New Exploration Licensing Policy (NELP) since 1999, an official statement said.

The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi approved change in the basis of classifying Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises from 'investment in plant and machinery/equipment' to 'annual turnover'.

This will encourage ease of doing business, make the norms of classification growth oriented and align them to the new tax regime revolving around GST (Goods & Services Tax).

OneIndia News