s shiva kumar

What if changing the way we eat today could significantly improve the nation's health over the next three decades? A study published in the *European Journal of Nutrition* on 17 September 2026 explored this possibility by examining the impact of reducing red and processed meat consumption in the UK by half and replacing it with more vegetables and pulses. The findings are certainly worth reflecting on. According to the researchers' projections, this dietary change could prevent around 4.5 million cases of chronic disease over 30 years and increase average life expectancy by approximately 9.4 months. The greatest health improvements were predicted in cardiovascular disease, with further benefits in reducing type 2 diabetes and colorectal cancer. One particularly interesting finding was that around 75% of the projected mortality benefits were associated with increased consumption of vegetables and legumes. This highlights an important point: healthier eating is not simply about reducing certain foods, but also about making better choices to replace them. These figures are based on modelling rather than observed outcomes, and the actual benefits would depend on how successfully such dietary changes could be achieved and sustained across the population. Nevertheless, the study reinforces the important role of plant rich diets in disease prevention and long term public health. Source: European Journal of Nutrition, 17 September 2026.

Have you heard of MBBS seats being offered on a clearance sale? We have all heard of clearance sales in furniture stores, clothing outlets and retail shops preparing to shut down. But have you ever heard of MBBS seats being offered almost like discounted merchandise in a clearance sale? Unfortunately, this is becoming a reflection of the reality of medical education in India today. The unchecked expansion of medical colleges, particularly private institutions mushrooming across every nook and corner of the country, raises serious questions about the quality of medical education, infrastructure and, perhaps most importantly, the long term career prospects of medical graduates. Increasing the number of seats without ensuring adequate clinical exposure, competent faculty, proper infrastructure and sufficient postgraduate training opportunities is a recipe for disaster. Consider the numbers. India's MBBS intake has increased from 51,348 seats in 2014 to 1,28,976 in 2025 to 26. That represents an increase of approximately 151% in just over a decade. Expanding access to medical education is undoubtedly welcome. But the more important question is: Has the quality of education, clinical training and availability of career opportunities kept pace with this phenomenal expansion? Every week, and I am genuinely not exaggerating, I receive calls or messages from medical graduates desperately exploring ways to leave India. When a highly respected profession is subjected to excessive expansion and mass production, without a corresponding increase in opportunities, an inevitable imbalance develops between the number of graduates and the jobs and training positions available to them. And what happens next? Students and parents, many of whom have invested enormous sums of money in medical education, begin looking overseas for postgraduate training and employment. Unfortunately, they often discover that the grass is not necessarily greener on the other side either. And now, a polite but important message to parents who contact me seeking employment opportunities in the UK for their MBBS qualified sons or daughters. Please understand that the UK is no longer an easy or readily accessible employment destination for overseas medical graduates. Competition for available junior doctor posts is intense, and simply holding an MBBS degree does not guarantee a job in the NHS. Graduates must also navigate professional registration requirements, licensing examinations where applicable, and an increasingly competitive recruitment process. I would therefore strongly advise parents not to invest huge sums of money in the hope that their children will automatically find employment in the UK or USA after completing MBBS in India. I am sorry if this sounds discouraging, but I would rather give you an honest assessment than raise expectations that may be difficult to fulfil. A medical degree should open doors to a meaningful professional career, not leave graduates scrambling to find an exit route from the very system in which they trained. It is time for policymakers, medical regulators and those responsible for medical education in India to pause and take stock. Expanding the number of medical colleges and MBBS seats cannot be an end in itself. Every additional seat must be backed by adequate infrastructure, competent faculty, meaningful clinical exposure and realistic postgraduate and employment opportunities. Producing more doctors without ensuring that they receive quality training and have viable career pathways is not progress. It is simply creating a larger pool of disillusioned graduates and financially distressed families. India does not merely need more doctors. It needs well trained, competent doctors who can serve the country with confidence and dignity. The question we must ask is not how many more MBBS seats we can create, but how many competent doctors we are actually preparing for the future. It is time to put quality before quantity. The future of an entire generation of medical graduates depends on it.

1 in 7 strokes are happening in the young in India.What was thought to be a disease affecting the elderly are now affecting youngsters.This trend will get worse as incidences of Hypertension, Diabetes increase with other risk factors of rapid urbanisation. When an youngster gets a stroke and survives, the cost of the disability falls on the family to look after them. Prevention is the key here.The education should start from the schooling days itself. Read the article written by me with Suryanarayana Sharma P M a Stroke Physician in today’s Deccan Herald. @DeccanHerald @shmira21 @savitha @dr_huded @RWT_NHS @strokeindian @WorldStrokeOrg deccanherald.com/health/thin…

One of the most serious failures of the Indian government has been in the field of education, particularly medical education. The government is proposing to add another 75,000 MBBS and postgraduate medical seats by 2029. But before celebrating these ambitious targets, shouldn't we ask a fundamental question: Who is going to train these doctors, and where? Consider the figures from recent counselling cycles. After the NEET-UG 2026 final round, 837 MBBS seats reportedly remained vacant in the national counselling process. After NEET-PG 2025 counselling, 1,140 postgraduate medical seats remained vacant across government and private colleges. Furthermore, the NEET-SS 2025 special stray-round vacancy list included 1,814 vacant DM, MCh and DNB super-speciality seats. A significant reason for these vacancies is that many of these seats are in private medical colleges, where exorbitant tuition fees and associated costs are simply beyond the reach of the vast majority of aspiring medical students. What is the point of creating more seats if they remain inaccessible to deserving students who have the academic merit but cannot afford the astronomical fees? Are we seriously assessing whether these medical colleges have adequate teaching faculty, sufficient patient loads, clinical material and infrastructure to train competent doctors? Medical colleges are being established in remote corners of the country, sometimes in areas with very limited patient inflow, while substantial numbers of MBBS seats are being sanctioned. Medical education, however, cannot be reduced to constructing buildings, appointing faculty on paper and announcing impressive admission targets. It requires hands-on clinical experience, adequate patient exposure and experienced teachers. What is the point of producing more medical graduates if we cannot guarantee the quality of their training? Who will make policymakers understand that expanding capacity without strengthening the foundations of medical education risks undermining clinical competence and the long-term quality of India's healthcare system? Are they listening? And, more importantly, are they willing to reconsider their approach? India needs more competent doctors, not merely more medical seats. It needs accessible and affordable medical education, not an increasingly commercialised system in which the ability to pay often matters more than academic merit. The situation is becoming even more concerning when we look at opportunities abroad. Traditional pathways for Indian medical graduates seeking postgraduate training overseas are becoming increasingly challenging. The UK is placing greater emphasis on prioritising its home-grown medical workforce, while the US residency pathway is facing additional uncertainty, including visa-related restrictions and an increasingly competitive residency selection process. Securing a postgraduate training position abroad is no longer something Indian medical graduates can take for granted. Against this backdrop, the future prospects of medical graduates are becoming increasingly uncertain, both at home and abroad. Parents need to think very carefully before committing their life savings to their children's medical education in India. An expensive medical degree does not automatically guarantee quality training, clinical competence or a secure professional future. Please think not once, but a hundred times before pushing your child into an increasingly expensive and uncertain medical education system. The value of a medical degree ultimately lies in the quality of education and training it represents, not simply in the qualification printed on the certificate.