Team Blitz India
NEW DELHI: The Union Cabinet has approved the establishment of 157 nursing colleges at a cost of Rs 1,570 crore in co-location with the medical colleges set up in the country since 2014, Union Health Minister Mansukh Mandaviya said.
The step would add around 15,700 new nursing graduate seats every year, he said after the cabinet meeting on April 26, adding it would also ensure quality, affordable and equitable nursing education in the country, particularly in under-served districts, states and Union territories.
Each nursing college will offer around 100 B.Sc (Nursing) seats every year. Of the total 157 colleges, 27 will be set up in Uttar Pradesh, 23 in Rajasthan, 14 in Madhya Pradesh and 11 each in Tamil Nadu and West Bengal. Bihar will get eight nursing colleges, Jammu and Kashmir and Odisha seven each, Assam, Chhattisgarh, Gujarat and Jharkhand five each, Karnataka and Uttarakhand four each, Punjab and Himachal Pradesh three each, and Haryana will get one nursing college.
The minister said the government plans to complete the project within two years with detailed timelines laid out for every stage of planning as well as execution of the new nursing colleges.
Noting that 26,000 Indian nurses are serving in the United Kingdom, 16,000 in the United States, 12,000 in Australia and around 20,000 in the Gulf countries, Mandaviya said this initiative will help enhance the number of nursing professionals.
The Cabinet also approved the National Medical Devices Policy, 2023 to promote domestic manufacturing and help the sunrise sector grow from the present USD 11 billion to USD 50 billion in the next five years and reduce import dependence.
