People with medical implants like pacemakers must not keep their cellphones on their shirt pockets.  The latest directive by the department of telecommunication (DoT) says that "people having active medical implants should preferably keep the cellphone at least 15cm away from the implant."  An office memorandum, circulated by the ministry of communications and IT on January 25, says manufacturer's mobile handset booklets will have to contain the safety precaution.  MoS for communications and...

-The Times of India   India is planning to make its undergraduate MBBS course six-and-a-half years long, instead of the present five-and-a-half years.  In a meeting on Saturday, health ministerGhulam Nabi Azad and the Medical Council of India (MCI) discussed amending the MCI Actthat would make a one-year rural posting compulsory for all MBBS students before they can become doctors. The proposal was first mooted by former health minister A Ramadoss in 2007.  Speaking...

-The Hindustan Times By cancelling licences issued by the UPA government to telecommunications companies in 2008, the Supreme Court has ruled against discretion in the allotment of natural resources like Radio frequencies. This is in contrast to the view of this government and that of its predecessor, the NDA, that big upfront costs like spectrum fees, which must be passed on to customers, don’t serve the larger goal of universal telecom...

-The Hindu   The Election Commission on Wednesday warned television and Radio channels and cable television networks not to air any programme, including news, talk shows and panel discussions during the prohibited period — 48 hours prior to the end of polling hours — which might influence the voter or affect the result. Airing such programmes violated Section 126 of the Representation of the People Act, 1951, the Commission said, adding that violators,...

-The Hindu   The Kudankulam Nuclear Power Plant (KKNPP) is totally safe, asserts the expert group constituted by the Government of India. In a release, A.E. Muthu Nayagam, group convenor, said, “Based on its extensive examination of various issues, there should be no cause for concern about the safety” of the plant. He pointed out that it was designed and engineered to the state-of-art of nuclear reactors in line with the current international safety...