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A local health board in Wales in the United Kingdom is planning to hire around 900 nurses from overseas over the next four years to plug its workforce shortages, with many of these nurses coming from Kerala. According to BBC's 'Local Democracy Reporting Service', <keyword id="17055694" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="swansea-bay" source="Orion">Swansea Bay</keyword> University Health Board of the state-funded National Health Service Wales will get a total of 350 overseas nurses in the current financial year subject to approval by chief executive <keyword id="17054695" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="mark-hackett" source="Orion">Mark Hackett</keyword>. It is expected to cost about 4.7 million pounds to employ 350 overseas nurses in 2023-24, which would save 1.5 million pounds in agency and nursing bank costs. <keyword id="17055005" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="gareth-howells" source="Orion">Gareth Howells</keyword>, director of nursing and patient experience at Swansea Bay health board, said overseas recruitment provided an "immediacy of really experienced staff". According to the report, overseas nurses are offered a Band 5 contract, with a starting salary of 27,055 pounds, but initially receive a Band 4 lower wage until they complete their UK registration. A board meeting was told that efforts were being made by the health board, which covers Swansea and Neath Port Talbot areas of Wales, and the <keyword id="32149" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="welsh" source="Orion">Welsh</keyword> government to train and retain more homegrown staff. The health board employs nearly 4,200 nurses and midwives, with the report saying it had "1,322 nurses and midwives currently over the age of 51 that could retire very soon or over the next few years". The health board told the 'Local Democracy Reporting Service' that besides <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="100" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword>, it recruited from the Philippines, Africa and the Caribbean. The overseas category also includes nurses from the European Union (EU), but the health board said it received "very few" EU applications. It comes as Health Education England (HEE), part of the NHS in England and in charge of recruiting and training, had said earlier this year that it was working with the West Yorkshire Integrated Care System (<keyword id="17055693" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="wyics" source="Orion">WYICS</keyword>) to develop "workforce relationships" in India for the northern England region. A WYICS team recently held workforce related meetings with ministers in Kerala in collaboration with the Overseas Development and Employment Promotion Consultants (ODEPC), a Thiruvananthapuram-based state government undertaking, and Kerala's Skills Council. "HEE continues to work on developing relationships in India for doctors, nurses and other health professionals as part of our mandate to support the growth of the NHS workforce," the HEE said. SEE ALSO: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/how-to-use-nearby-share-to-send-and-receive-files-android-smartphone-and-windows-computer/articleshow/99294746.cms">How to use Nearby Share to easily send and receive files between your Android smartphone and Windows computer</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/news/google-makes-it-easier-for-users-to-delete-their-account-and-data-from-applications/articleshow/99289621.cms">Google makes it easier for users to delete their account and data from applications</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/business/auto/news/odysse-vader-is-the-latest-electric-bike-in-india-offers-a-range-of-125-km-on-a-single-charge/articleshow/99268636.cms">Odysse Vader is the latest electric bike in India, offers a range of 125 km on a single charge</a>

Local health board in UK plans to hire hundreds of nurses from India

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Ryan Lettier has been a concierge at five-star hotel The Peninsula New York since 2021.</li><li>He books reservations or rides or finds merchandise for elite clientele, sometimes celebrities.</li></ul>This as-told-to essay is based on a conversation with Ryan Lettier, a 43-year-old concierge at The Peninsula New York, a five-star hotel in New York City. The following has been edited for length and clarity.I moved to New York in 2018 from Portland, Oregon, to work as a concierge at the Four Seasons New York and have been a member of <a href="https://www.lcdusa.org/">Les Clefs d'Or</a>, the national association of professional hotel concierges, since 2014. I started working at <a href="https://www.peninsula.com/en/new-york/5-star-luxury-hotel-midtown-nyc">The Peninsula New York</a> in November 2021 because Four Seasons Midtown hadn't reopened yet. I hadn't moved here to sit on my sofa. I wanted to work, but I was going to be really picky with where I ended up. With Four Seasons, I was at the top of the sector, and I wanted something comparable. Peninsula was perfect in terms of its prestige. I was hired as seasonal help to get through the holidays, but then January came around and restrictions had let up, so the amount of people traveling was more than they expected and there was a need to keep me. They said they would reevaluate my role in March, and that's when they hired me full-time.Most days, there are two of us at the concierge desk and our "chef," or lead, concierge, Frederick Bigler, in the office. But now we have the US Open and the UN General Assembly and Fashion Week, and from there you roll into the holidays. The fourth quarter is prime time, and we can't take vacation — we'll have four of us working the desk. July and August are typically slower in New York because everyone is in the Hamptons or just away from the city. But right now we're at 100% occupancy. The slower months in the first quarter are usually when we like to take our vacation. Coming off the busy season, it's nice to head somewhere warm and rejuvenate.<h2>Some people don't understand what a concierge is anymore </h2>All these luxury apartment buildings are calling their doormen concierge now. It drives me crazy. They're maybe just handling packages. In order to have your clefs d'or "key," or membership, you need to be working a concierge desk at a luxury hotel.My job is different every day. One day I might be helping plan a milestone birthday, pulling off an impossible dinner reservation or getting the best seat in a restaurant. The next day, I might be lending an ear to a guest who's dying or just dealt with something very painful. From arranging balloons or hot-air balloons to puppies and bunnies in somebody's room as a surprise to a Gulfstream jet to Geneva, nothing is too big, too small, or too odd. You're constantly learning as a concierge. It keeps you alert and on your toes. New York City is always changing and evolving. In my opinion, there's no better place to be a concierge.<h2>We're working much harder now</h2>The luxury traveler is back. International travel is huge. Brazilians, people from the Middle East — everyone is flocking to New York City. Many of our guests tell us it's their first trip to New York since the pandemic. What's different now from before the pandemic is that our concierge staff has been cut from seven to five, while the hotel has been at full occupancy. Our desk hours are 7 a.m. to 9 p.m., whereas before we would work from 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. So with full occupancy and less staff, we have to somehow fit all our guests' requests, emails, and phone calls into a shorter amount of hours. In a way, it's actually more time-consuming. For example, take restaurants: Before the pandemic, maybe 90% of maitre d's would answer the phone. Now, with staffing shortages, half the restaurants we call to make reservations for our guests don't answer the phone, so we have to email and wait to hear back or try to book online for the guest. We prefer phone calls to establish our relationships with restaurants. It's quicker for us to call rather than go on the website and try to find answers to all of our questions. Some guests only want to sit outside, or have special requests or dietary restrictions. Resy doesn't bend the rules for us. <h2>Staffing shortages across all industries make our job harder </h2>We're getting guests coming back complaining that service was too slow at restaurants, or they asked for something and it never came. Merchandise in stores isn't there, either. We have guests tell us they tried to go shopping but there was nothing to buy. One guest I spoke with who came from Europe wanted to go to Hermès. She wanted a certain dining set that she couldn't find in Italy and was disappointed that the store in New York had even fewer items than in Italy. It's first-world problems. Your Hermès spoons aren't available. With staffing shortages at the airports, we're often dealing with lost luggage, and it's harder to schedule a last-minute car or driver service. All the shortages make us have to work smarter and harder with less hours and a smaller team.Another thing that's changed is we often get requests for PCR and rapid antigen tests. They have mobile units out on the street, but those guys move around, so we're constantly trying to locate where guests can go to get rapid COVID-19 testing. We'll also work with a nurse who comes in and can go right to the guest's room, so they have that luxury, which costs a couple hundred dollars. Mostly now the tests are for peace of mind since restrictions have mostly dropped. We do deal with a lot of celebrities who come through, and before they go on TV or go to a concert or a signing, they require a PCR or rapid antigen test. <h2>Our typical guest is the same as before the pandemic — high paying with high expectations</h2>Everybody's been locked up at home for so long, they're willing and freely wanting to spend money. There's an expectation, though. Nothing can go wrong. You have to carefully execute their stay, and we want to make their first visit back to New York great. There's a reward that's come back to us nine times out of 10, and I'd say guests are tipping more. Celebrities aren't necessarily leaving gratuities since you're dealing with their assistant, but it's everyday people who are recognizing and appreciating great service. When we get gratuities from guests — it could be $1 or $100 — it's all pooled and split evenly. We have a much smaller team at the Peninsula than at the Four Seasons, and oftentimes we're all helping a guest. Even a person you might not have worked with — whatever's in here, we're splitting five ways.The other day, a couple traveling from India with their grandkids left a gratuity and also a handwritten note. When everything goes just according to plan for the guest, we look good and it might be mentioned in a review or on social channels. Sometimes we're even mentioned by name. Our entire team is really good at reading guests, and we're sympathetic when something goes wrong. Even if sometimes they're upset because the trip wasn't the best, they might leave you a gratuity because you exhausted all options and whatever happened was out of your control. <h2>One of the great things I love about our team is that we don't take things home with us. It stays at the desk. </h2>We leave cohesive notes for each other so the next day one of us can take over where the other left off. At previous hotels, I was taking things home and following up on tasks like confirming reservations or organizing guest requests on my days off. We hold each other up and finish things for each other. You actually can leave things at the desk and enjoy your time away from work.There's a huge group staying with us right now from Asia that's taken over more than 100 rooms in the hotel and having meetings every day in the hotel. It's so nice to see that again. Hotels are back to life. When you see the hotel bustling like it is and you're busy with requests, it reminds me this is why I love living and working here. That energy that you crave when you think of New York is back.

I'm a concierge at a 5-star hotel in NYC. We're trying to meet our guests' high expectations, but staffing shortages are making my job harder.

<ul><li>UK and <keyword id="3658" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="india" source="Orion">India</keyword> have signed an MoU mutually recognising each other’s education degrees.</li><li>The two countries also signed two more agreements – on maritime education and a framework agreement on the healthcare workforce.</li><li>Negotiations for the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) are ongoing and will be concluded by August 31, commerce secretary <keyword id="6641896" type="General" weightage="80" keywordseo="bvr-subrahmanyam" source="Orion">BVR Subrahmanyam</keyword> said.</li></ul>The United Kingdom is one of the most popular choices among Indian students, as the country is home to some renowned universities like Oxford, Cambridge, LSE etc. On Thursday, July 21, the Indian government signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the UK government, which will be highly beneficial for Indian students who wish to study in the island nation. “From today onwards, UK degrees will be recognised as equivalent to Indian degrees. You can take a degree there (in the UK) and will be eligible for employment in India. However, professional degrees such as medicine, pharmacy, engineering, architecture will not be covered under the pact,” commerce secretary BVR Subrahmanyam said at a media briefing on July 21. Undergraduate and postgraduate degrees will now be recognised in both the countries. This means that an Indian student who has a degree from one of the Indian colleges will now be eligible to pursue higher studies in the UK and vice versa. This also means that Indian degree holders will now be treated on par with UK degree holders and will be eligible for jobs in the UK as well. The UK government has plans to attract more international students to its universities and hence, will be giving an economic boost. “The agreement will make UK universities even more appealing to Indian applicants and is likely to provide an economic boost, as the benefit to the UK of welcoming non-EU students is estimated by industry to be around £109,000 per person,” the UK government said in a statement. The two countries also signed two more agreements – on maritime education and a framework agreement on the healthcare workforce. The latter pact will facilitate the training of healthcare professionals and nurses in India by the UK government, as the country is facing a shortage. The maritime MoU paves the way for the governments to recognise the degrees, training and competency in maritime education in the respective countries. The MoUs are part of the UK-India Enhanced Trade Partnership (ETP), which was agreed upon by Prime Minister <keyword id="6380867" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="boris-johnson" source="Orion">Boris Johnson</keyword> and Prime Minister <keyword id="6354477" type="General" weightage="50" keywordseo="narendra-modi" source="Orion">Narendra Modi</keyword> last year. Negotiations for the India-UK free trade agreement (FTA) are ongoing and will be concluded by August 31, said Subrahmanyam. Currently, the fifth round of negotiations for the FTA is underway. “In August, we will be negotiating every day. The hope is to conclude the deal by August 31 and I am confident that we are on track,” Subrahmanyam said. The trade between both the countries is worth $24 billion. “Our investment relationship supports over half a million jobs. Since 2017 the UK Government has secured new access to India’s market, which businesses estimate will unlock approximately £92m of additional UK exports every year in spirits, oats, pork products, and more. India is projected to become the world’s third largest economy by 2050,” the UK statement read. SEE ALSO: <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/tech/enterprise/news/thrifting-is-the-latest-trend-on-indian-instagram-and-it-is-a-great-one-for-the-environment/articleshow/93052751.cms">Thrifting is the latest trend on Indian Instagram, and it is a great one for the environment</a> <a target="_blank" class="c-link c-message_attachment__title_link" href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/india-had-3x-more-women-pilots-than-the-global-average/articleshow/93044874.cms">India had 3x more women pilots than the global average</a>

Now you can get a job in the UK with an Indian degree — Here’s everything you need to know

<ul class="summary-list"><li>Experts tell Business Insider that a glass vial shortage, as well as cargo restraints, could limit the mass rollout of a <keyword id="8624004" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus-vaccine">coronavirus vaccine</keyword>.</li><li>The vials are only made by a few companies, and boosting production could prove tricky. "The <keyword id="118965" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="Supply-chain">supply chain</keyword> for vials is particularly challenging because manufacturing capacity ramp up takes longer, and is capital intensive," says Harvard Medical School lecturer Prashant Yadav.</li><li>While many of world's leading vial manufacturers are up for a challenge, several experts tell Business Insider that several factors including time, demand uncertainty, temperature control, transport, and storage issues could also curb production. </li><li>"The challenge of getting <keyword id="79555" type="TECHNOLOGY" weightage="60" keywordseo="Vaccines">vaccines</keyword> to the public will depend on the availability of cold storage and aircraft capacity around the world," says Sam Roscoe, senior lecturer in operations management at the University of Sussex.</li></ul>Even if scientists find a coronavirus vaccine, we will need a supply of little glass tubes like never before — and experts are worried something could go badly wrong.Those <a href="https://uk.reuters.com/article/uk-health-coronavirus-schott-exclusive/exclusive-bottlenecks-glass-vial-makers-prepare-for-covid-19-vaccine-idUKKBN23J0TP">warning</a> that a glass vial shortage could slow the roll-out of any coronavirus vaccine include <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/bill-gates-buying-glass-vials-for-billions-of-coronavirus-vaccines-2020-5">Bill Gates</a>, pharmaceutical giant AstraZeneca boss <a href="https://fr.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-schott-exclusive-idUSKBN23J0SN">Pascal Soriot</a>, the head of the Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations, and the director general of drug makers' lobby group IFPMA. Each step of making vials could create a bottleneck, just as we're on the cusp of delivering the vaccine that saves us, they say. These are not new warnings. Experts <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-glass-vial-shortage-could-delay-global-rollout-2020-5">said in May</a> that the right glassware could be in short supply — and four months later, little has changed. Instead, concerns are mounting that various parts of the vaccine supply chain, from vials to cold-storage containers to cargo planes, could hamper efforts to distribute the lifesaving jabs.Vaccine vials aren't standard glass tubes. They require tailor-made production lines, plus a supply of borosilicate glass to keep vaccines in the requisite stable state during storage and transportation. This glass is only made by a handful of companies, such as Corning in the US and Schott in Germany. "In the long run, we need new technology for vaccine packaging so that we don't rely exclusively on glass vials," says Harvard Medical School lecturer Prashant Yadav, who is also a senior fellow at the Center for Global Development and affiliate professor of technology and operations management at business school INSEAD. "However, our short-to-medium outlook for COVID-19 vaccines has to rely predominantly on glass vials."Vaccine is siphoned from giant vats into these vials, which each need to be checked for quality. The supply chain also needs specialist stoppers, again only made by a few companies. The world's leading vial manufacturers are, perhaps unsurprisingly, optimistic. Their joint <a href="https://www.prnewswire.co.uk/news-releases/leading-pharma-packaging-companies-commit-to-supply-for-covid-19-fight-867614032.html">statement</a> from June was upbeat, if short on details. "We will do everything to support any upcoming <keyword id="8904563" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="covid-19-vaccine">COVID-19 vaccine</keyword> campaigns," said Dietmar Siemssen, chief executive of Gerresheimer AG. Schott chairman Dr Frank Heinricht promised his company would "do our utmost to provide the required containers."Read more: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-vaccine-timeline-what-to-watch-leading-research-2020-3">There are 176 coronavirus vaccines in the works. Here's how top drugmakers see the race for a cure playing out in 2020 and 2021 and when the first shots might be available.</a>But mere assurances may not quell concerns — especially after similar promises over personal protective equipment (PPE) were broken in many countries. The UK government, for example, repeatedly promised millions of items of PPE would be distributed quickly and efficiently to the frontline, but <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/coronavirus-uk-doctors-threaten-to-quit-over-lack-of-protective-equipment-2020-3">nurses and doctors were constantly caught short</a>. They found ways to make do — at one point nurses cleaned old gowns with alcohol wipes — but no one can improvise a vial.Digging into the vial makers' statements doesn't boost confidence. Fabian Stocker, a senior Schott vice-president in charge of global strategy and pharmaceutical systems, spoke of a $1 billion investment plan to boost glass tubing and vial production by an extra seven billion doses — but included the qualifier, "<a href="https://www.outsourcedpharma.com/doc/do-the-math-no-shortage-of-vials-for-covid-vaccines-0001">by 2025</a>."Vial makers are, at least, readying themselves to massively ramp up production for any COVID-19 vaccine. Brendan Mosher, Corning's vice president and general manager of pharmaceutical technologies tells Business Insider it will quadruple production by the end of the year. The US government <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-health-coronavirus-corning/corning-wins-u-s-funding-to-boost-glass-vial-manufacturing-for-covid-19-therapies-idUSKBN23G1YY">awarded</a> them $204 million to boost capacity, including to build a new specialist glass furnace.The Oslo-based Coalition for Epidemic Preparedness Innovations has <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/world/covid-vaccines-fear-of-glass-vial-shortage-prompts-flurry-of-deals-11593077482045.html">paid</a> 19.7 million euros ($22 million) to Italy's Stevanato Group for 100 million glass vials that can hold up to two billion doses, while Schott has opened a<a href="https://www.caixinglobal.com/2020-07-31/with-covid-19-vaccines-in-the-pipeline-attention-turns-to-medical-grade-vials-101587341.html"> factory</a> in China to make glass for around 7 billion vials by the end of 2020.But Harvard's Yadav adds a cautionary note. "The supply chain for vials is particularly challenging because manufacturing capacity ramp up takes longer, and is capital intensive. We know that for products which require long time and significant capital to build capacity, if manufacturers bear the full risk of demand uncertainty, they may under-invest in manufacturing capacity as compared to what society needs."<h3>Vial confidence rests on big assumptions</h3>Even the manufacturers themselves don't fully know what to expect. The size of vials required if giant orders come is one area of uncertainty. Some countries operate vaccination programmes based on single-dose vials (2ml), while others like the US will likely want large vials holding up to 15 doses. Others still may want vaccines in ready-to-use glass syringes.While manufacturers stress they cope regularly with flexible formats, some concede potential issues. "At this point there is much we still don't know regarding the number of doses required and doses per vial," Corning's Mosher says. Dr Paul Stoffels, chief scientific officer at Johnson and Johnson, was blunter when he <a href="https://www.biopharmadive.com/news/coronavirus-vaccine-vials-supply-bottleneck/578793/">spoke to Biopharma Dive</a> in May: "Getting to five or 10 vaccines per vial is probably going to be essential to be able to cope with the volume. The capacity is not there to do it in the billions."Glass vials aren't the only worry. Sam Roscoe, senior lecturer in operations management at the University of Sussex, and a fellow of the UK Trade Policy Observatory group of experts, tells Business Insider that temperature control is tricky. "Vaccines are highly temperature sensitive — almost all need to be stored and transported between 2 degrees and 8 degrees celcius [36 and 46 degrees fahrenheit] from manufacture to administration. <div type="image" title="Dr Samuel Roscoe, Sussex University" height="2328" width="3096" msid="78238365" hostid="261"></div>"This makes the maintenance of a cold chain a key for the COVID-19 vaccination programme. Strategically located cold chain facilities — near major airports or major population centres — will therefore be in high demand."This transport and storage chain will be complex. "Companies will require cross-docking operations where vaccines can be safely handled and stored between each leg of their journey," Roscoe says. "Currently, warehouse space is being retrofitted to handle high volumes of COVID-19 vaccines, with large freight forwarders opening new temperature-controlled sites."Vaccines will need to be moved by cargo planes and the air freight industry has hugely scaled back when demand plummeted in lockdown. "The majority of vaccine distribution will therefore need to be by cargo aircraft or in retrofitted passenger planes," he says. "The challenge of getting vaccines to the public will depend on the availability of cold storage and aircraft capacity around the world."Roscoe says cold-storage shortages at African and Middle Eastern airports could hinder vaccines reaching those regions."The World Health Organization, UNICEF and USAID will have an important role to play in ensuring the current lack of cold storage does not impede the vaccine being distributed around the world," he adds.Politicians will play their part too — which worries some experts. While nations might form an orderly queue for supplies, a senior Trump administration official told the <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/07/13/coronavirus-vaccine-corning-glass/">Washington Post</a> in July: "Our priorities are very clear. Let's take care of Americans first." And when Rick Bright — then head of the Biomedical Advanced Research and Development Authority, the US body overseeing procurement and development of medical countermeasures — <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rick-bright-whistleblower-tells-congress-us-unprepared-for-covid-19-2020-5">filed a report warning about glass vial shortage in May</a>, the Trump administration <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/rick-bright-save-lives-trumps-disgruntled-label-coronavirus-2020-5">fired him</a>.The numbers that key players throw around don't inspire confidence. Schott's Fabian Stocker told <a href="https://www.outsourcedpharma.com/doc/do-the-math-no-shortage-of-vials-for-covid-vaccines-0001">Outsourced Pharma</a> that the "worst-case assumption" was the whole world would need 2 billion doses, which seems to be a shortfall on a planet of around 7.5 billion.Adar Poonawalla, chief executive of the Serum Institute of India, the world's largest vaccine producer, said on September 14 that <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/covid-vaccine-wont-reach-everyone-for-four-years-serum-institute-2020-9">the world will need 15 billion doses</a> if the COVID-19 vaccine requires two jabs, as measles does. Roscoe says demand could be much higher than expected if there are repeated waves of infections. "Shortages are not likely in the initial wave of vaccinations — but may follow in the second and third round of vaccine distribution." Yadav agrees. The first phase for people who are high priority might be fine, but "when we get to late 2021 and 2022 and start looking at a global demand of over 10 billion doses — assuming vaccines which require two doses — that's when vial capacity becomes tight."

The rollout of a COVID-19 vaccine is under threat: Leading experts tell us they're worried about a shortage of glass vials, cargo planes, and cold-storage units

<ul class="summary-list"><li><keyword id="3658" type="COUNTRY" weightage="60" keywordseo="India">India</keyword> has paused its medical exams to allow student doctors and nurses to fight COVID-19.</li><li>The country has reported more than 20 million cases, the second-highest case toll in the world.</li><li>India has been struggling to fight the surge, with shortages in labor, beds, oxygen, and vaccines.</li></ul>India postponed its medical exams so that doctors and nurses in training can help with the country's devastating COVID-19 surge.Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday approved the pausing of the National Eligibility cum Entrance Test for postgraduate medics (NEET-PG) for at least four months, <a href="https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/india/on-duty-final-yr-medical-students-pre-pg-doctors/articleshow/82378742.cms">The Economic Times reported</a>.India's medical system has been struggling to cope with the unprecedented wave of cases amid an acute shortage of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/video-indias-covid-19-surge-die-stretchers-hospitals-2021-4">bed space</a>, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-covid-19-black-market-oxygen-crisis-1000-markup-2021-4">oxygen</a>, and <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-doesnt-have-enough-covid-19-vaccines-its-own-population-2021-4">vaccines</a>. The problem has also been complicated by the emergence of <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/double-mutant-coronavirus-variant-california-india-2021-4">a new variant first identified in the country</a>. The country's total case count surpassed 20 million <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="60" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> cases on Tuesday, making it the second-highest in the world after the US.However, the actual figure may be far higher than reported, <a href="https://time.com/5954416/india-covid-second-wave/">according to Time</a>. The death toll - currently logged at just over 222,000 - <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/india-covid-19-death-toll-could-be-10-times-higher-2021-5">may also be under-reported</a>. The country reported 368,000 new cases on Sunday, lower than its Friday reported peak of just over 400,000, <a href="https://www.arcgis.com/apps/opsdashboard/index.html#/bda7594740fd40299423467b48e9ecf6">according to Johns Hopkins University's case tracker</a>.Several states had already pressed final-year students into duty, <a href="https://www.livemint.com/news/india/govt-likely-to-incentivise-medical-students-joining-covid-duty-amid-second-wave-modi-meeting-neet-mbbs-11619943635233.html">according to the Indian economic newspaper Mint</a>. For example, as of Saturday the city Kolkata had called around 3,000 trainee doctors into service, <a href="https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/kolkata/state-to-call-back-3000-med-students/articleshow/82334369.cms">The Times of India reported</a>. Modi's Monday decision now frees up a large pool of medical students nationwide to tackle the virus without exams looming. His move followed calls from the influential cardiac surgeon Dr. Devi Shetty, who outlined the numbers of doctors and nurses needed to see out the crisis at a recent conference, <a href="https://indianexpress.com/article/india/lack-of-doctors-and-nurses-to-treat-covid-patients-will-be-the-next-big-crisis-dr-devi-shetty-7298066/">The Indian Express reported</a>."Once the oxygen problem is solved, the next problem over the next few weeks will be the death of patients in ICUs because there are no nurses and doctors to take care of them," Shetty was reported as saying, arguing that students must be pressed into service to fill the backlog.

India postponed medical exams so students can help fight the country's devastating COVID-19 surge

<ul><li>The Finance Minister <keyword id="129243" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Nirmala-Sitharaman">Nirmala Sitharaman</keyword> allocated ₹99,300 crore to the education sector -- including ₹3,000 crore for the skill development initiatives.</li><li>This is a ₹4,500 crore rise from last year where the government allocated ₹94,800 crore towards the education fund.</li><li>Under the '<keyword id="596294" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="study-in-India">Study in India</keyword>' programme, the government will introduce INSAT exam to enroll Asian and African students in Indian universities. </li></ul> The Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman allocated ₹99,300 crore to the education sector -- including ₹3,000 crore for the skill development initiatives -- as she announced the Union Budget on February 1, 2020. This is a ₹4,500 crore rise from last year where the government allocated ₹94,800 crore towards the education fund — focusing on improving schools and higher education programmes. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 New reforms introduced Sitharaman said that there have been over 200,000 new additions in the New Education Policy, which will be announced soon. Come 2030, India will have the largest working age population in the world. Under the 'Study in India' programme, the government will introduce INSAT exam to enroll Asian and African students in Indian universities. In order to provide quality education to the under privileged, full-fledged online courses will be launched in India -- by the institutions featuring in the top 100 national rankings. Given the increasing global demand, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare will also kickstart a 'bridge course' to reskill its teachers and nurses. It will also introduce one-year internship for engineering students. Almost 260 million people in India enroll into different courses each year, while another 60 million are deprived of access to education, according to the Right to Education Forum. This shows that the Indian education system needs a revamp. According to the government think tank Niti Aayog, India should increase the education expenditure to nearly 6% of the GDP over the next two years. Poor quality of education is one of the many risks that India faces — adding to its unemployment crisis. The total employment in the country declined by 9 million in the last seven years, since 2017. As of July 2019, 1.5 million people gained skills and jobs, thanks to the country’s <keyword id="2473582" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="Skill-India-mission">Skill India mission</keyword>. However, this accounts for merely 21% of the total trainees — 7.2 million — who enrolled for the programme. 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
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 “India’s unemployment challenge is partly because of a low level of education, high dropout rates, labour market asymmetries, a mismatch between the supply of skills and demand and the high aspirations of young people,” K P Krishnan, former secretary of the Ministry of Skill Development and Entrepreneurship, <a href="https://www.indiaspend.com/skills-and-jobs-must-match-to-meet-high-aspirations-of-indias-young/">told</a> IndiaSpend. This is primarily because of the lack of skills to match the changing needs of the digital world. “Lack of skills was evident in new age digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Machine Learning and Cloud Computing. Shortage of these skill sets can be met by the government developing guidelines for various industries in order to create mandatory learning hours for employees — especially in the key growth sectors like IT, BFSI sectors,” Kamal Dutta, MD, Skillsoft told Business Insider. Last Budget, Sitharaman announced a ‘Study in India’ programme, focussed to bringing foreign students to study in India’s higher education institutions. She also said that the government will also ensure industry relevant skill training for 10 million youth in India — building skills in technologies like Artificial Intelligence, Big Data, Virtual Reality, 3D printing and Robotics. This too might see some allocation this budget. Shortage of teachers India is short of teachers and skilled teachers are rarer to come by. As of now, the country has roughly 8.5 million teachers and only 19,000 teacher training institutes. “If we are focussed on the right to education, the quality of education is equally important and the Govt may look to allocate budget to improve education facilities,” said Nivedita Das Gupta, India Country Head, Miracle Foundation India. As of 2018, the country’s national capital Delhi government schools were recorded with 35,034 regular teachers. While the sanctioned strength was 64,096 — which is a shortage of nearly <a href="https://www.indiatoday.in/mail-today/story/teacher-shortage-govt-schools-1414146-2018-12-21">45% of teachers.</a> In August 2019, the Ministry of Human Resource and Development (MHRD) announced an initiative ‘<a href="https://www.moneycontrol.com/news/india/hrd-ministry-to-launch-programme-to-train-over-42-lakh-teachers-across-india-on-august-22-4345371.html">NISHTHA</a>’ — National Initiative on School Teachers Head Holistic Advancement — to train over 4.2 million teachers across the country. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/startup-esops-to-be-non-taxable-for-five-years/articleshow/73824551.cms">Good news for startup employees - your ESOPs won’t be taxed for five years</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/budget-2020-top-highlights-and-updates-from-finance-minister-nirmala-sitharaman/articleshow/73828229.cms?src=hp_ts">Income tax cuts, stake sale in LIC and other highlights from Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman's budget speech</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/budget/news/new-education-schemes-reforms-policies-in-budget-2020/articleshow/73836166.cms?src=hp_latest">Budget 2020: Indian education sector will now get students and funds from foreign lands</a>

Education Budget 2020 gets ₹99,300 crore allocation, new schemes introduced — including 'INSAT' to enroll Asian and African students

Today there is an eerie silence across the globe. Bustling cities have gone quiet and highways that were once jammed with bumper to bumper traffic, <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/news/coronavirus-lockdown-changing-the-way-the-earth-vibrates-is-a-reminder-that-nobody-is-alone-during-the-pandemic/articleshow/74965089.cms">are empty</a>. In homes, thousands of families are anxiously awaiting a phone call from a hospital about their loved ones. Many have already received the devastating news that their mother, father, child, spouse, sibling or friend has died from <keyword id="1754604" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="coronavirus">coronavirus</keyword> complications - often without the comfort of someone familiar to hold their hands. In the very trenches of the war against this new disease has changed our world with astonishing speed, are nurses, doctors and other hospital staff. Every day they put on their uniforms and turn up to the frontline to battle, with or without the armour of Personal Protective Equipment. <div type="image" title="beds_edited" msid="75059245" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Covid speciality wards with 300+ beds are getting ready at Victoria Hospital in Bengaluru&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> <keyword id="8763838" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="20" keywordseo="covid-19">COVID-19</keyword> has touched every nook and cranny of our globe. Big and small, developed and developing countries have seen their economies grind to a halt; businesses are buckling under the strain of lockdowns; toilet paper, hand sanitiser and pasta are becoming rare and precious items; schools are closing and major sporting events have been cancelled. And, of course, it has exposed serious gaps in health services and systems. Even as we wake every day to this frightening and sometimes surreal experience, it is encouraging and comforting to hear the Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, declare, on Sunday, that “we will succeed” in the fight against this global crisis. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="75000311" title="Queen Elizabeth says we will succeed in fight against Covid-19" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> So, on this World Health Day that has been, rightly set aside to celebrate the contributions of nurses and midwives, it is important that we take the opportunity to re-evaluate the status quo and the current models that support our daily lives; and begin to assess the lessons that are already emerging from this catastrophe. What we have already witnessed, for example, is that healthcare systems that are more equitable, providing access to basic healthcare to all individuals and communities without them experiencing financial hardship, are more equipped to respond to the pandemic. These countries that provide healthcare to all, known as Universal <keyword id="426163" type="PERSON" weightage="20" keywordseo="health-coverage">Health Coverage</keyword>, have been more successful in providing testing and treatment during the pandemic. <div type="image" title="migrants" msid="75059219" hostid="261" caption="&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hundreds of migrant workers wait for the free meals in Koti&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;"></div> This particular lesson has been a top agenda item for Commonwealth health ministers at their annual summits for the last four years. Their meetings have critically assessed various strategies to help countries achieve Universal Health Coverage. It is now undoubtedly clear that addressing human resources for health shortages and financing sustainable healthcare systems that cater to the needs of those in poverty and the most marginalised in any society, is critical if we are to win the fight against COVID-19 and be ready for any future outbreaks. Another challenge this pandemic has exposed is the acute shortage of essential health supplies, drugs, equipment and tests. Prior to the COVID-19 outbreak, the Commonwealth had developed strategies to help countries to pool procurement of essential medicines. This was presented at the 2019 Health Ministers Meeting chaired by Fiji. Since the outbreak of COVID-19, we have been exploring how we can tailor approaches such as a price sharing and pooled procurement platform to provide important information on these essential health supplies, drugs, tests and equipment necessary to combat the pandemic across the Commonwealth. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="74788450" title="IITs against Coronavirus — All the experiments from electrified water to herbal sanitizers to cheap test kits" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> There is no doubt that this pandemic is affecting us all — its impact is leaking into every aspect of our life. Both physical and mental health is on the line, as people lose their way of life, their livelihoods and their loved ones. Many of us will feel the long-term effects of poor nutrition, decline in fitness and the disruption of human relationships. However, COVID-19 does not affect us equally. There is certainly a disproportionate impact, for example, on households that depend on daily paid labour and people at risk of domestic abuse. So, governments stand before a goliath challenge that requires a coordinated response involving all sectors. <div type="Article" hostid="261" msid="74875425" title="India launches mental health helpline to help people deal with lockdown stress" mstype="2" mssubtype="0"></div> But I again return to the wisdom of The Head of the Commonwealth, Queen Elizabeth II, that “better days will return”. If we work together, share resources and equipment and follow the advice of governments and the World Health Organisation (WHO), we will, eventually, be able to wake up our cities, return to work, school and leisure, to meet and chat, or to hug each other. It is important that we never go back to the business-as-usual that we knew before coronavirus. We must use the opportunity to learn from this outbreak and decide, not only how we could have more resilient, connected and accessible healthcare systems, but also how we could address connected issues such as climate change and access to quality education for all. About the author: Patricia Scotland is <a href="https://thecommonwealth.org/secretary-general-rt-hon-patricia-scotland-qc">Secretary-General of the Commonwealth</a> and is the first woman to hold the post. Disclaimer: The views expressed belong solely to the guest authors and do not represent the opinion of Business Insider. See also: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/science/health/news/here-are-the-ways-the-coronavirus-pandemic-is-driving-innovation-in-india/articleshow/75058816.cms">Face shields, bio-suits, and disinfection chambers — some of the ways that Coronavirus is driving innovation in India</a> <a href="https://www.businessinsider.in/india/news/kerala-was-the-worst-hit-state-from-coronavirus-in-india-now-its-fifth-in-the-country/articleshow/75048337.cms">Kerala was the worst-hit state from Coronavirus in India — now it’s fifth in the country</a>

Countries with universal health coverage have fared better in fighting COVID-19

Common medical masks are fine for all other COVID-19 treatments, say researchers, adding that the use of surgical masks did not increase viral respiratory infection or clinical respiratory illness. According to the study, published in the journal Influenza and Other Respiratory Viruses, systematic review of four randomised controlled trials on masks done between 1990 and last month show the use of medical masks did not increase viral respiratory infection or clinical respiratory illness. However, there is a consensus that the N95 respirators, designed to fit tight and prevent inhalation of small airborne particles, are best for procedures such as intubation or bronchoscopy when health-care professionals must insert a tube through a patient's throat. "There is no convincing evidence that the loose-fitting medical masks are inferior to N95 respirators in protecting healthcare workers against viral respiratory infections during routine care in the pandemic," said study researcher Mark Loeb from McMaster University in Canada. "But the N95 respirators are unanimously recommended by national and international guidelines for aerosol-generating procedures. This is an important distinction at a time when there is a serious concern about a shortage of N95 respirators because of COVID-19," Loeb added. The researchers pointed out that there have been conflicting recommendations on the use of the N95 masks. The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the European Centre for Disease and Prevention preferentially recommend the N95 respirator for routine care of patients with COVID-19, while the World Health Organization and Canadian Public Health Agency recommend medical masks. "Although COVID-19 transmission is not fully understood, it's believed to be mainly through respiratory droplets, and the medical masks provide barrier protection for that and prevent hand to face contact," Loeb said. "This evidence to support the relative effectiveness of medical masks compared to N95 respirators in routine care might help preserve the stockpiles of N95 respirators for high-risk, aerosol-generating procedures," said study first author Jessica Bartoszko. However, the question needs further research and this month the research teams are beginning a new study on whether the N95 respirators or medical masks are the best option for health-care providers caring for COVID-19 patients. In a multi-site randomized controlled trial, nurses will use either a medical mask or N95 respirator when providing care for patients with fever and respiratory illness. "This study is critical to ensure we're using personal protective equipment correctly during this, and any future infectious disease outbreak," said Loeb.

Surgical masks good to be used for COVID-19 treatment

<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Shayanne Gal/Business Insider</div></div></div><ul class="summary-list"><li>Facebook's blood donation feature in India risks being abused by black market blood peddlers.</li><li>Local blood donation experts told Business Insider the product can be used to illegally sell blood in the country.</li><li>Facebook says it has only seen one report through its platform, though one expert said victims were unlikely to report the issue and that he has heard reports of blood selling.</li><li>"The Facebook blood donation tool is not only trying to save lives but also indirectly helping to create a very disastrous and illegal blood donation activities," said one blood donor organisation founder.</li><li>This black market pre-dates Facebook's time in the country, but there are fears that the way Facebook connects donors and recipients could exacerbate it.</li></ul> Several public health officials in India are calling for <a href="https://markets.businessinsider.com/stocks/fb-stock">Facebook</a> to make changes to its blood donation tool, warning that the tech project - although well-meaning - risks fueling a dangerous black market for blood and harming the country's fragile blood collection system. Facebook's one-year-old blood donation feature has already helped facilitate tens of thousands of donations since it was launched, saving lives by making it easier for people in need of transfusions to find willing donors with matching blood types.But the tool's person-to-person format is ringing alarm bells among experts and professionals in the field, who say that it's too easy for unscrupulous characters to latch onto, leaving vulnerable people at risk of paying exorbitant prices and receiving tainted blood, among other issues.Facebook said that it has only had one report of forbidden behavior on the tool - but the head of one Indian blood donor organization said he has been told about incidents of black market blood selling on Facebook and suggested victims of black marketers were unlikely to report them to the social media firm."These types of products ... definitely bring in black marketing, and it's definitely promoting it unknowingly, because it was not the intent of Facebook to promote black marketing," said Biswaroop Biswas, the National Secretary of the Federation of Indian Blood Donor Organisations (FIBDO), a coalition of 126 blood donation groups across India.The issue, which has not been previously been reported, illustrates the ongoing challenges Facebook faces in its efforts to ensure that its 2-billion member social network is not exploited for nefarious ends, whether that be interfering in US elections or promoting ethnic cleansing in Myanmar. The company is walking a delicate tightrope with the India blood donation tool, as it tries balance the unprecedented power, and undeniable benefits, that its technology brings with the potential for it to exacerbate thorny and endemic problems within the country.In an interview, Facebook health product manager Hema Budaraju said: "What I would like to emphasize is our role is to get more and more blood banks to adopt our features, and to actually build up the culture of blood donation. And as you're already well aware, this system doesn't exist in the US, right? It's because donors are motivated [to give blood regularly].""That's the world we are trying to get to, and we are working constantly with NGOs and blood banks."<h2>India has a worrying black market in blood</h2>India quite simply doesn't have enough blood to go around.There is <a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/09/blood-donations-in-india/">an annual deficit of more than one million units of blood</a> in the country - meaning patients can sometimes be forced to search for their own sources of blood, asking their social circle for donations or even paying illegal black marketers extortionate sums.As Facebook grew in the country, it became an avenue for people to request blood donations from others in their network. In response, Facebook launched a tool in 2017 to try and facilitate donations more formally.Initially available in India and now also live in Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Brazil, Facebook's blood donation tool allows organisations and individuals to put out requests for blood donors on the social network at short-notice. Users can voluntarily register themselves on Facebook as blood donors, and then, when a request is put out nearby, they may be notified (or view them in a centralized hub).These requests may be sent by medical institutions like hospitals and blood banks as part of broad donation drives, or individuals who require blood on behalf on themselves or a family member imminently, and who may or may not be in a medical institution.<a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2018/06/making-it-easier-to-donate-blood/">More than 11 million people have now signed up for the service</a> across the four countries it operates in, and it has facilitated tens of thousands of donations. <div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image"><a href="https://newsroom.fb.com/news/2017/09/blood-donations-in-india/">Facebook</a>A publicity photo from Facebook showing a request on the blood donation tool.</div></div></div>There is an existing black market for blood in India, preying on desperate sufferers amid blood shortages. FIBDO expressed concerns that Facebook's product may help fuel this. Black market agents can register on the platform as donors, Biswas said. Then, when notifications and requests go out, the agents can contact the requester directly, offering them blood for a fee.He said he has spoken to people who have been approached by black market blood sellers on Facebook. Budaraju said the company has multiple safeguards in place to protect users. New accounts aren't sent notifications about requests, and "the registrations we receive are doubly checked against fake and spammy accounts." Users are also able to report other users if they ask for money in return for blood, and she said there has only been one instance of a report through the platform to date - a post that was soliciting blood in exchange for money, in Bangladesh. (The user was subsequently made unable to use the blood donation tool.)However, Biswas, who also sits on the governing body of the National Blood Transfusion Council, was skeptical that users would report black market issues to Facebook, suggesting they would simply pay up in a time of need instead. "If you need blood and people ask for money ... Will [you] report or just go with the donor [and] pay him?"Chethan Gowda, student founder of blood donor organisation Khoon, said unscrupulous middlemen could also potentially use the platform to sell blood at extortionate rates: "The racket personnel can also request for blood, arrange for a donor through Facebook and on the other hand charge huge amount from the patient family, wherein the blood donor who turned up to donate blood will have no idea of what's going on on the other end."And black market blood that hasn't been vetted carries a risk of being misclassified, tainted or otherwise dangerous, health experts say.Gowda added: "The Facebook blood donation tool is not only trying to save lives but also indirectly helping to create a very disastrous and illegal blood donation activities."<h2>These problems all pre-date Facebook - but now it has to deal with them</h2>These kinds of problems long pre-date Facebook's entry into the blood donation space, and also take place on other online platforms, Biswas said. Facebook also continues to work with NGOs and blood donor organisations in India to encourage donations, including NTR Trust, the National Blood Transfusion Council, and Giants <keyword id="6356001" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="60" keywordseo="international">International</keyword>. "There are known issues of scams/exploitation or bad actors in blood donation in some of the countries where our feature is available," Budaraju said in an email. "We've worked closely with partner organizations and NGOs to understand those concerns and the challenges they deal with in order to build a product that helps makes it easier for people to sign-up to be blood donors and find opportunities to donate nearby while also mitigating these risks. While there may be a few bad actors, we see a lot more good happening as a result of this feature."She said that partners "highlighted a few concerns about potential ... scam[s] or abuse that could happen on Facebook, which is why we've designed the product with a number of safeguards in place. No partners have raised issues since we launched the product in each country, but we continue to work closely with them to ensure the feature is as safe and useful as possible."But the concerns of the Indian organizations who spoke to Business Insider point to how as Facebook moves into new markets and experiments with new tools designed to do good, it has been forced to grapple with unprecedented new challenges that would have been unimaginable when it was founded as a simple network for college students in 2004.Facebook has stumbled in India before, with Free Basics - a program to provide a free, limited internet service to users in emerging markets. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jul/27/facebook-free-basics-developing-markets">Facebook promoted it as a magnanimous project, but it was met with protests</a>, and the company was accused of "digital colonialism" and violating net neutrality principles.<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">Christopher Furlong/Getty ImagesA nurse takes blood from a volunteer on April 17, 2007, Manchester, England.</div></div></div><h2>India wants to move away from 'replacement' blood donations</h2>India has set itself a goal: By 2020, it wants to hit 100% voluntary blood donation.This means 100% of the blood used in the country will come from volunteers proactively going to hospitals, blood banks, and donation drives to donate, which will then be distributed as necessary. At present, a portion of India's blood donations come from what is known as "replacement blood donations" - when a donor agrees to give blood specifically for someone in their network, rather than to the general blood bank.This system can be problematic, with donors sometimes feeling pressured to donate blood to those in their community, and the lack of anonymity sometimes causing issues with donors attempting to extract favors (if not outright payment) from the recipients. FIBDO is concerned that Facebook's mechanism for connecting donors and recipients directly can encourage replacement blood donation. "When they got in touch with us, we told them this is not the way you people will be able to help the society," Biswas said. He believes that Facebook's one-to-one model effectively violates India's National Blood Policy, which calls for a movement away from replacement donors, and he would like to see Facebook remove one-to-one donation options.Facebook disagrees, arguing that its one-to-one model is a step forward from the status quo, and that it too wants to see a 100% voluntary blood donation model implemented as soon as possible. Without Facebook's tools, people needing donations might ask people in real life for a donation, applying significant pressure, Budaraju said. In contrast, Facebook's notifications will also go to people outside a recipient's existing social circle, to people who have already registered and signaled their willingness to donate. The recipient is also unaware of the potential donors' identities unless they choose to respond and share information about themselves."In some ways I fundamentally believe the current system that we built on Facebook, even when used in the person-to-person, is a step towards voluntary, because people are under no coercion, do not have social pressures, are choosing to respond of their own volition and going in to donate," Facebook's Budaraju said. "So it's actually the opposite of the replacement system."<div class="KonaFilter image-container display-table"><div><div class="image on-image">REUTERS/Charles PlatiauFacebook's founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg.</div></div></div><h2>There are worries around blood wastage</h2>Another area of concern is around potential blood wastage.Srijan Pal Singh, the CEO of developmental NGO The Kalam Centre, said that Facebook's focus on increasing blood donations, without building out further blood storage infrastructure, could result in some of the blood drawn being wasted. "The time we worked with them, it seemed all about creating more units, but that's not the idea. It's not about creating more units, it's about helping more lives, and there's a difference between the two," he said."It's a well-known fact, three million units of blood was wasted in five years [in India] so unless you have the mechanism to store this blood it doesn't make sense."Facebook responded that it believes that other organisations in the blood donation ecosystem are better placed to work on these problems than it. "We are still a relatively young product, we are focusing on .. Facebook's strengths in terms of education, communication, context, and in bringing awareness, and to build simple tools for blood banks and hospitals,"Budaraju said."I don't know that we would be the most effective people to think about storage and infrastructure."<h2>'People will try to abuse those services in every way possible'</h2>It's difficult to assess to what extent some of these concerns might actually be happening on Facebook.Khoon's Chethan Gowda conceded that it's hard to measure whether the illegal behavior he has seen elsewhere is taking place on Facebook. "Concrete example[s] of a similar scenario happening through the Facebook blood donation tool is tough," he said. "As there's no track on the request."Singh urged Facebook to get ahead of the problem. "When you have so much outreach and access, a lot of these touts and brokers may emerge, this is a possibility that I also hope Facebook sees will come up," he said. "When they are implementing this platform with all this good intent they should not end up becoming a victim of encouraging a whole black market brokerage."Biswas said he is confident that black market selling is already taking place on Facebook, and has spoken to people who have been approached by blood sellers on the platform: "These things are happening. And as you can see when the people are in need of blood, they won't come out to say to the donor organisations afterwards that people are coming and asking for money." Despite these alleged flaws, Facebook believes it has built a significant improvement on the previous status quo - desperate patients and their families posting unregulated and unmonitored requests for blood directly onto Facebook and other platforms across the web. Both Facebook and FIBDO agree that a priority is education and promoting a cultural shift towards voluntary blood donation; Facebook plans to roll out educational resources for donors in the product soon. The company also continues to work with NGOs and blood donation organisations, who have heralded its work to drive blood donations and save lives. "Facebook has long been a positive platform for people in India to connect with Blood Donors and help those in need. NTR Trust welcomes Facebook's efforts to help make it even easier for people to donate blood in India," Vishnu Vardhan, CEO of non-profit organisation NTR Trust, said in a statement when the feature first launched. "We look forward to working together to raise awareness of the importance of donating blood and collectively catalyze sustainable access to safe blood in India. What Facebook is doing has the potential to bring tectonic shifts in Blood Banking in India."On Friday, <a href="https://www.facebook.com/zuck/posts/10105224999156601?__tn__=-R">Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg published a post on the social network</a> reflecting on Facebook's efforts to fix its platform over the last year."What I've learned so far is that when you build services that are used by billions of people across countries and cultures, you will see all of the good humanity is capable of, and people will try to abuse those services in every way possible," he wrote."It is our responsibility to amplify the good and mitigate the bad." <div class="margin-top"> <h3>NOW WATCH: <a href="https://www.businessinsider.com/kaman-kmax-helicopter-intermeshing-dual-crossing-rotors-2018-8">An aerospace company reintroduced its precision helicopter with two crossing motors</a></h3> <div> </div> </div>

Health officials in India warn that Facebook's blood donation tool risks fueling a black market in blood

Since independence, India's healthcare systems have undergone a sea change. Some basic statistics reveals this remarkable transformation. The life expectancy at birth has more than doubled from 32 years at the time of independence to 66 years in 2013. Similarly, the <keyword id="6713304" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="infant-mortality-rate">Infant Mortality Rate</keyword> (IMR) has almost reduced threefold to 40 per 1000 live births. India has also been successful in eradicating diseases like polio and smallpox. 
 But in several areas much remains to be done. Almost half of the children under the age of five are stunted. The immunization coverage of DPT (diphtheria, pertussis and tetanus) in India is seven-tenths, which is comparable to sub-Saharan Africa. Similarly, the cases of lifestyle diseases like <keyword id="6359018" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="diabetes">diabetes</keyword> and <keyword id="6364492" type="UNKNOWN" weightage="100" keywordseo="Obesity">obesity</keyword> are on the rise. India’s disease burden at present is much higher than other emerging economies such as China, Indonesia, Brazil, etc. Almost 60 percent of the world population, which defecates in the open, lives in India. It not only poses a challenge of public health but also of public safety. In addition, the public expenditure on health at the union level as a percentage of <keyword id="35050" type="CITY" weightage="100" keywordseo="gdp">GDP</keyword> is one of the lowest in India. 
 
Broadly speaking, healthcare along with education has been traditionally thought of as the responsibility of the state. But the government is developing countries is often cash-strapped and often does not have the adequate resources to cater to the healthcare sector especially for a large country like India single-handedly. Healthcare sector comprises of the following sub-sectors, which are critical for addressing the healthcare challenge. 
 
These include: 
 
Hospitals- These are run both on a public and a private basis in India. 
 
Pharmaceuticals- This broadly includes companies in the process of drug extraction and made from chemical substances. 
 
Diagnostics-These are laboratories that are primarily responsible for testing and analysis of ailments related to one’s bodies. They are run both public and private basis. 
 
Medical Equipment's and Supplies- These include equipment's and surgical tools, which are responsible for providing the patient healthcare at the time of need. These include dental, ophthalmic, orthopaedic, lab instruments, etc. 
 Medical <keyword id="35450" type="COMPANY" weightage="100" keywordseo="insurance">Insurance</keyword>- It includes health insurance and covers hospitalization and reimbursement in case of medical expenditure. At present, it is at a very early stage with out of pocket spends being the norm for a very large proportion of the population. 
 
These five subsectors over the next few years are crucial to solving India's healthcare challenge. Especially acute is the problem of infrastructure and shortage of healthcare professionals. The per capita levels of healthcare professionals like doctors and nurses is simply inadequate to meet the challenge of India’s growing population. These along with availability of affordable medicines are an important aspect of public health. Along with these innovation in the medical equipment’s and supplies as well as improved diagnostics will be essential to meet India’s healthcare challenge. 
 
Another crucial area that is of great importance is access to healthcare. At present India has a three-tiered system of healthcare starting from the health sub-centres (HSCs) located at the village level. The second tier consists of public healthcare centres (PHCs), which are essentially a referral unit for HSCs. The third tier consists of community health centres (CHCs) that have hospital facilities and serve as a referral unit for PHCs. Also, the government has 20,000 hospitals that serve both the rural and urban populations. Added to this is the private healthcare system that has both quacks and hospitals with world-class facilities and everything in between. The private system is fragmented and largely present within and in the vicinity of urban agglomerations. Access to these facilities often becomes challenging. Usage of technology for low penetration areas as well as newer access options in cities could offer some solutions. Examples include telemedicine in villages with problems of healthcare access and mobile vans for initial primary care in case of emergencies on the road in urban areas. 
 
Healthcare is a critical enabler of competitiveness as a healthy population is a productive population. In the future the challenge is to enable both the private and public sectors to work hand in hand to enable a healthy and disease free India, which is competitive. 
 
(The article is co-authored with Sankalp Sharma, Senior Researcher at the Institute for Competitiveness, India.) 
 
(Image credits: tenderfoodie)

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