Daily English Quiz – 19 February 2026

Out of the given alternatives select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of given word.

Apparatus

Out of the given alternatives select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of given word.

Conviction

Out of the given alternatives select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of given word.

Dissolution

Out of the given alternatives select the alternative which best expresses the meaning of given word.

Infraction

Out of the given alternatives select the word opposite in meaning to the given word.

Ordnance

Out of the given alternatives select the word opposite in meaning to the given word.

Potable

Out of the given alternatives select the word opposite in meaning to the given word.

Recede

Out of the given alternatives select the word opposite in meaning to the given word.

Requisition

Out of given alternatives, choose the word which can be substituted for the given words/ sentence.

A set of equipment or tools needed for a particular activity; also, an organized system used to achieve something.

Out of given alternatives, choose the word which can be substituted for the given words/ sentence.

A violation or breaking of a rule, law, or agreement.

Out of given alternatives, choose the word which can be substituted for the given words/ sentence.

Move back or withdraw; become less or fade away.

Out of given alternatives, choose the word which can be substituted for the given words/ sentence.

An official order or request to obtain something; (Verb) Officially demand or take something for use.

A statement with one blank is given below. Choose the set of words from the given options which can be used to fill the given blank.

The usher showed us ________

A statement with one blank is given below. Choose the set of words from the given options which can be used to fill the given blank.

His wife has a twin who resembles her so much that at first he had great trouble telling _______

A statement with one blank is given below. Choose the set of words from the given options which can be used to fill the given blank.

I always fall ________ old friends in times of need

Out of given alternatives select the option which best expresses the meaning of given idiom/ phrase.

Take up the hatchet

Explanation: prepare for or go to war<br> Take up the hatchet = to make or declare war<br> Look at the sentence : He induced the tribes to take up the hatchet against the English.

Out of given alternatives select the option which best expresses the meaning of given idiom/ phrase.

At loose ends

Explanation: in an uncertain situation<br> At a loose end = to have nothing to do At loose ends = not knowing what to do, especially because of an upsetting change. <br> Look at the sentences : If you find yourself at loose ends, you could always clean the bathroom. <br> I was at loose ends after finishing school and not being able to find a job.

Out of given alternatives select the option which best expresses the meaning of given idiom/ phrase.

With might and main

Explanation: with full force<br> With might and main = with all one's power or strength; to the best of one's ability; with as much effort as possible. <br> Look at the sentence : They shouted with might and main but nobody came to rescue them.

Which of phrases given below each sentence should replace the phrase printed in bold type to make the grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is, mark 'd' as the answer.

He had no (1)/ accuse for attacking (2)/ that old man. (3)/ No error (4)

Explanation: Accuse (verb) = to say that somebody has done<br> something wrong or is guilty of something. <br> Excuse (Noun) = a reason, either true or invented that you give to explain or defend your behaviour. <br> Hence, excuse (Noun) for attacking ... should be used here.

Which of phrases given below each sentence should replace the phrase printed in bold type to make the grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is, mark 'd' as the answer.

Mothers keep on (1)/ to encouraging their children (2)/ to study. (3)/ No error (4)

Explanation: Keep on doing something = continue doing something. It is superfluous to use preposition ‘to’. <br> Don't keep on interrupting me! <br> Keep on (at somebody) about something = to speak to somebody often. <br> I will do it – just don't keep on at me about it.

Which of phrases given below each sentence should replace the phrase printed in bold type to make the grammatically correct? If the sentence is correct as it is, mark 'd' as the answer.

Mohan wishes (a)/ he will be (b)/ richer. (c)/ No error (d)

Explanation: May/might is used when showing wishes and hopes. Hence, he may (might) be ....... should be used here.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions. <br><br><br> In February 2010 the Medical Council of India announced a major change in the regulation governing the establishment of medical colleges. With this change, corporate entities were <strong>permitted</strong> to open medical colleges. The new regulation also carried the following warning : permission shall be withdrawn if the colleges resort to commercialisation . Since the regulation does not elaborate on what constitutes resorting to commercialisation , this will presumably be a matter left to the discretion of the Government. <br><br> A basic requirement for a new medical college is a pre-existing hospital that will serve as a teaching hospital. Corporate entities have hospitals in the major metros and that is where they will have to locate medical colleges. The earlier mandated land requirement for a medical college campus, a minimum of 25 acres of contiguous land, cannot be fulfilled in the metros. Not surprisingly, yet another tweak has been made in the regulation, prescribing 10 acres as the new minimum campus size for 9 cities including the main metros. With this, the stage is set for corporate entities to enter the medical education market. <br><br> Until now, medical education in India has been projected as a not-forprofit activity to be organised for the public good. While private bodies can run medical colleges, these can only be societies or trusts, legally non-profit organisations. In opening the door to corporate colleges, thus, a major policy change has been effected without changing the law or even a discussion in Parliament, but by simply getting a <strong>compliant</strong> MCI to change the regulation on establishment of medical colleges. This and other changes have been justified in the name of addressing the shortage of doctors. At the same time, over 50 existing medical colleges, including 15 run by the government, have been prohibited from admitting students in 2010 for having failed to meet the basic standards prescribed. Ninety per cent of these colleges have come up in the last 5 years. Particularly <strong>shocking</strong> is the phenomenon of government colleges <strong>falling short</strong> of standards approved by the Government. Why are state government institutions not able to meet the requirements that have been approved by the central government? A severe problem faced by government-run institutions is attracting and retaining teaching faculty, and this is likely to be among the major reasons for these colleges failing to satisfy the MCI norms. The crisis building up on the faculty front has been <strong>flagged</strong> by various commissions looking into problems of medical education over the years. <br><br> An indicator of the crisis is the attempt to conjure up faculty when MCI carries out inspections of new colleges, one of its regulatory functions. Judging by news reports, the practice of presenting fake faculty – students or private medical practitioners hired for the day – during MCI inspections in private colleges is common. What is interesting is that even government colleges are adopting <strong>unscrupulous</strong> methods. Another indicator is the extraordinary scheme, verging on the ridiculous that is being put in place by the MCI to make inspections 'foolproof'. Faculty in all medical colleges are to be issued an RFID-based smart card by the MCI with a unique Faculty Number. The card, it is argued, will eliminate the possibility of a teacher being shown on the faculty of more than one college and establish if the qualifications of a teacher are genuine. In the future, it is projected that biometric RFID readers will be installed in the colleges that will enable a Faculty Identification, Tracking and Monitoring System to monitor faculty from within the college and even remotely from MCI headquarters. <br><br> The picture above does not even start to reveal the true and pathetic situation of medical care especially in rural India. Only a fraction of the doctors and nursing professionals serve rural areas where 70 per cent of our population lives. The Health Ministry, with the help of the MCI, has been active in proposing yet another 'innovative' solution to the problem of lack of doctors in the rural areas. The proposal is for a three-and-a-half year course to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS). Only rural candidates would be able to join this course. The study and training would happen at two different levels – Community Health Centers for 18 months, and sub-divisional hospitals for a further period of 2 years – and be conducted by retired professors. After completion of training, they would only be able to serve in their own state in district hospitals, community health centres, and primary health centres. <br><br> The BRMS proposal has invited <strong>sharp</strong> criticism from some doctors' organisations on the grounds that it is discriminatory to have two different standards of health care – one for urban and the other for rural areas, and that the health care provided by such graduates will be compromised. At the other end is the opinion expressed by some that something is better than nothing, that since doctors do not want to serve in rural areas, the government may as well create a new cadre of medics who will be obliged to serve there. The debate will surely pick up after the government formally lays out its plans. What is apparent is that neither this proposal nor the various stopgap measures adopted so far address the root of the problem of health care. <br><br> The far larger issue is government policy, the low priority attached by the government to the social sector as a whole and the health sector in particular, evidenced in the paltry allocations for maintaining and upgrading medical infrastructure and medical education and for looking after precious human resources.

What solution is being offered by the Health Ministry for the shortage of doctors in rural areas?

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions. <br><br><br> In February 2010 the Medical Council of India announced a major change in the regulation governing the establishment of medical colleges. With this change, corporate entities were <strong>permitted</strong> to open medical colleges. The new regulation also carried the following warning : permission shall be withdrawn if the colleges resort to commercialisation . Since the regulation does not elaborate on what constitutes resorting to commercialisation , this will presumably be a matter left to the discretion of the Government. <br><br> A basic requirement for a new medical college is a pre-existing hospital that will serve as a teaching hospital. Corporate entities have hospitals in the major metros and that is where they will have to locate medical colleges. The earlier mandated land requirement for a medical college campus, a minimum of 25 acres of contiguous land, cannot be fulfilled in the metros. Not surprisingly, yet another tweak has been made in the regulation, prescribing 10 acres as the new minimum campus size for 9 cities including the main metros. With this, the stage is set for corporate entities to enter the medical education market. <br><br> Until now, medical education in India has been projected as a not-forprofit activity to be organised for the public good. While private bodies can run medical colleges, these can only be societies or trusts, legally non-profit organisations. In opening the door to corporate colleges, thus, a major policy change has been effected without changing the law or even a discussion in Parliament, but by simply getting a <strong>compliant</strong> MCI to change the regulation on establishment of medical colleges. This and other changes have been justified in the name of addressing the shortage of doctors. At the same time, over 50 existing medical colleges, including 15 run by the government, have been prohibited from admitting students in 2010 for having failed to meet the basic standards prescribed. Ninety per cent of these colleges have come up in the last 5 years. Particularly <strong>shocking</strong> is the phenomenon of government colleges <strong>falling short</strong> of standards approved by the Government. Why are state government institutions not able to meet the requirements that have been approved by the central government? A severe problem faced by government-run institutions is attracting and retaining teaching faculty, and this is likely to be among the major reasons for these colleges failing to satisfy the MCI norms. The crisis building up on the faculty front has been <strong>flagged</strong> by various commissions looking into problems of medical education over the years. <br><br> An indicator of the crisis is the attempt to conjure up faculty when MCI carries out inspections of new colleges, one of its regulatory functions. Judging by news reports, the practice of presenting fake faculty – students or private medical practitioners hired for the day – during MCI inspections in private colleges is common. What is interesting is that even government colleges are adopting <strong>unscrupulous</strong> methods. Another indicator is the extraordinary scheme, verging on the ridiculous that is being put in place by the MCI to make inspections 'foolproof'. Faculty in all medical colleges are to be issued an RFID-based smart card by the MCI with a unique Faculty Number. The card, it is argued, will eliminate the possibility of a teacher being shown on the faculty of more than one college and establish if the qualifications of a teacher are genuine. In the future, it is projected that biometric RFID readers will be installed in the colleges that will enable a Faculty Identification, Tracking and Monitoring System to monitor faculty from within the college and even remotely from MCI headquarters. <br><br> The picture above does not even start to reveal the true and pathetic situation of medical care especially in rural India. Only a fraction of the doctors and nursing professionals serve rural areas where 70 per cent of our population lives. The Health Ministry, with the help of the MCI, has been active in proposing yet another 'innovative' solution to the problem of lack of doctors in the rural areas. The proposal is for a three-and-a-half year course to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS). Only rural candidates would be able to join this course. The study and training would happen at two different levels – Community Health Centers for 18 months, and sub-divisional hospitals for a further period of 2 years – and be conducted by retired professors. After completion of training, they would only be able to serve in their own state in district hospitals, community health centres, and primary health centres. <br><br> The BRMS proposal has invited <strong>sharp</strong> criticism from some doctors' organisations on the grounds that it is discriminatory to have two different standards of health care – one for urban and the other for rural areas, and that the health care provided by such graduates will be compromised. At the other end is the opinion expressed by some that something is better than nothing, that since doctors do not want to serve in rural areas, the government may as well create a new cadre of medics who will be obliged to serve there. The debate will surely pick up after the government formally lays out its plans. What is apparent is that neither this proposal nor the various stopgap measures adopted so far address the root of the problem of health care. <br><br> The far larger issue is government policy, the low priority attached by the government to the social sector as a whole and the health sector in particular, evidenced in the paltry allocations for maintaining and upgrading medical infrastructure and medical education and for looking after precious human resources.

Why have some existing medical colleges been prohibited from admitting students ?

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions. <br><br><br> In February 2010 the Medical Council of India announced a major change in the regulation governing the establishment of medical colleges. With this change, corporate entities were <strong>permitted</strong> to open medical colleges. The new regulation also carried the following warning : permission shall be withdrawn if the colleges resort to commercialisation . Since the regulation does not elaborate on what constitutes resorting to commercialisation , this will presumably be a matter left to the discretion of the Government. <br><br> A basic requirement for a new medical college is a pre-existing hospital that will serve as a teaching hospital. Corporate entities have hospitals in the major metros and that is where they will have to locate medical colleges. The earlier mandated land requirement for a medical college campus, a minimum of 25 acres of contiguous land, cannot be fulfilled in the metros. Not surprisingly, yet another tweak has been made in the regulation, prescribing 10 acres as the new minimum campus size for 9 cities including the main metros. With this, the stage is set for corporate entities to enter the medical education market. <br><br> Until now, medical education in India has been projected as a not-forprofit activity to be organised for the public good. While private bodies can run medical colleges, these can only be societies or trusts, legally non-profit organisations. In opening the door to corporate colleges, thus, a major policy change has been effected without changing the law or even a discussion in Parliament, but by simply getting a <strong>compliant</strong> MCI to change the regulation on establishment of medical colleges. This and other changes have been justified in the name of addressing the shortage of doctors. At the same time, over 50 existing medical colleges, including 15 run by the government, have been prohibited from admitting students in 2010 for having failed to meet the basic standards prescribed. Ninety per cent of these colleges have come up in the last 5 years. Particularly <strong>shocking</strong> is the phenomenon of government colleges <strong>falling short</strong> of standards approved by the Government. Why are state government institutions not able to meet the requirements that have been approved by the central government? A severe problem faced by government-run institutions is attracting and retaining teaching faculty, and this is likely to be among the major reasons for these colleges failing to satisfy the MCI norms. The crisis building up on the faculty front has been <strong>flagged</strong> by various commissions looking into problems of medical education over the years. <br><br> An indicator of the crisis is the attempt to conjure up faculty when MCI carries out inspections of new colleges, one of its regulatory functions. Judging by news reports, the practice of presenting fake faculty – students or private medical practitioners hired for the day – during MCI inspections in private colleges is common. What is interesting is that even government colleges are adopting <strong>unscrupulous</strong> methods. Another indicator is the extraordinary scheme, verging on the ridiculous that is being put in place by the MCI to make inspections 'foolproof'. Faculty in all medical colleges are to be issued an RFID-based smart card by the MCI with a unique Faculty Number. The card, it is argued, will eliminate the possibility of a teacher being shown on the faculty of more than one college and establish if the qualifications of a teacher are genuine. In the future, it is projected that biometric RFID readers will be installed in the colleges that will enable a Faculty Identification, Tracking and Monitoring System to monitor faculty from within the college and even remotely from MCI headquarters. <br><br> The picture above does not even start to reveal the true and pathetic situation of medical care especially in rural India. Only a fraction of the doctors and nursing professionals serve rural areas where 70 per cent of our population lives. The Health Ministry, with the help of the MCI, has been active in proposing yet another 'innovative' solution to the problem of lack of doctors in the rural areas. The proposal is for a three-and-a-half year course to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS). Only rural candidates would be able to join this course. The study and training would happen at two different levels – Community Health Centers for 18 months, and sub-divisional hospitals for a further period of 2 years – and be conducted by retired professors. After completion of training, they would only be able to serve in their own state in district hospitals, community health centres, and primary health centres. <br><br> The BRMS proposal has invited <strong>sharp</strong> criticism from some doctors' organisations on the grounds that it is discriminatory to have two different standards of health care – one for urban and the other for rural areas, and that the health care provided by such graduates will be compromised. At the other end is the opinion expressed by some that something is better than nothing, that since doctors do not want to serve in rural areas, the government may as well create a new cadre of medics who will be obliged to serve there. The debate will surely pick up after the government formally lays out its plans. What is apparent is that neither this proposal nor the various stopgap measures adopted so far address the root of the problem of health care. <br><br> The far larger issue is government policy, the low priority attached by the government to the social sector as a whole and the health sector in particular, evidenced in the paltry allocations for maintaining and upgrading medical infrastructure and medical education and for looking after precious human resources.

Which of the following is/are the changes announced by the MCI in the regulation governing the establishment of medical college? <br><br> A. Allowing the commercialisation of medical colleges. <br> B. Reducing the earlier mandated land requirement for a medical college campus for metros. <br> C. Allowing corporate bodies to open medical colleges.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions. <br><br><br> In February 2010 the Medical Council of India announced a major change in the regulation governing the establishment of medical colleges. With this change, corporate entities were <strong>permitted</strong> to open medical colleges. The new regulation also carried the following warning : permission shall be withdrawn if the colleges resort to commercialisation . Since the regulation does not elaborate on what constitutes resorting to commercialisation , this will presumably be a matter left to the discretion of the Government. <br><br> A basic requirement for a new medical college is a pre-existing hospital that will serve as a teaching hospital. Corporate entities have hospitals in the major metros and that is where they will have to locate medical colleges. The earlier mandated land requirement for a medical college campus, a minimum of 25 acres of contiguous land, cannot be fulfilled in the metros. Not surprisingly, yet another tweak has been made in the regulation, prescribing 10 acres as the new minimum campus size for 9 cities including the main metros. With this, the stage is set for corporate entities to enter the medical education market. <br><br> Until now, medical education in India has been projected as a not-forprofit activity to be organised for the public good. While private bodies can run medical colleges, these can only be societies or trusts, legally non-profit organisations. In opening the door to corporate colleges, thus, a major policy change has been effected without changing the law or even a discussion in Parliament, but by simply getting a <strong>compliant</strong> MCI to change the regulation on establishment of medical colleges. This and other changes have been justified in the name of addressing the shortage of doctors. At the same time, over 50 existing medical colleges, including 15 run by the government, have been prohibited from admitting students in 2010 for having failed to meet the basic standards prescribed. Ninety per cent of these colleges have come up in the last 5 years. Particularly <strong>shocking</strong> is the phenomenon of government colleges <strong>falling short</strong> of standards approved by the Government. Why are state government institutions not able to meet the requirements that have been approved by the central government? A severe problem faced by government-run institutions is attracting and retaining teaching faculty, and this is likely to be among the major reasons for these colleges failing to satisfy the MCI norms. The crisis building up on the faculty front has been <strong>flagged</strong> by various commissions looking into problems of medical education over the years. <br><br> An indicator of the crisis is the attempt to conjure up faculty when MCI carries out inspections of new colleges, one of its regulatory functions. Judging by news reports, the practice of presenting fake faculty – students or private medical practitioners hired for the day – during MCI inspections in private colleges is common. What is interesting is that even government colleges are adopting <strong>unscrupulous</strong> methods. Another indicator is the extraordinary scheme, verging on the ridiculous that is being put in place by the MCI to make inspections 'foolproof'. Faculty in all medical colleges are to be issued an RFID-based smart card by the MCI with a unique Faculty Number. The card, it is argued, will eliminate the possibility of a teacher being shown on the faculty of more than one college and establish if the qualifications of a teacher are genuine. In the future, it is projected that biometric RFID readers will be installed in the colleges that will enable a Faculty Identification, Tracking and Monitoring System to monitor faculty from within the college and even remotely from MCI headquarters. <br><br> The picture above does not even start to reveal the true and pathetic situation of medical care especially in rural India. Only a fraction of the doctors and nursing professionals serve rural areas where 70 per cent of our population lives. The Health Ministry, with the help of the MCI, has been active in proposing yet another 'innovative' solution to the problem of lack of doctors in the rural areas. The proposal is for a three-and-a-half year course to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS). Only rural candidates would be able to join this course. The study and training would happen at two different levels – Community Health Centers for 18 months, and sub-divisional hospitals for a further period of 2 years – and be conducted by retired professors. After completion of training, they would only be able to serve in their own state in district hospitals, community health centres, and primary health centres. <br><br> The BRMS proposal has invited <strong>sharp</strong> criticism from some doctors' organisations on the grounds that it is discriminatory to have two different standards of health care – one for urban and the other for rural areas, and that the health care provided by such graduates will be compromised. At the other end is the opinion expressed by some that something is better than nothing, that since doctors do not want to serve in rural areas, the government may as well create a new cadre of medics who will be obliged to serve there. The debate will surely pick up after the government formally lays out its plans. What is apparent is that neither this proposal nor the various stopgap measures adopted so far address the root of the problem of health care. <br><br> The far larger issue is government policy, the low priority attached by the government to the social sector as a whole and the health sector in particular, evidenced in the paltry allocations for maintaining and upgrading medical infrastructure and medical education and for looking after precious human resources.

Which of the following are the different opinions regarding the BRMS proposal? <br><br> A. At least a small step has been taken to improve the healthcare facilities in the rural areas through this proposal. <br> B. There should be uniform healthcare facilities available for people living in both rural and urban area. <br> C. The healthcare providers through this proposal would not be up to the mark.

Read the following passage carefully and answer the questions given below. Certain words/phrases are printed in bold to help you to locate them while answering some of the questions. <br><br><br> In February 2010 the Medical Council of India announced a major change in the regulation governing the establishment of medical colleges. With this change, corporate entities were <strong>permitted</strong> to open medical colleges. The new regulation also carried the following warning : permission shall be withdrawn if the colleges resort to commercialisation . Since the regulation does not elaborate on what constitutes resorting to commercialisation , this will presumably be a matter left to the discretion of the Government. <br><br> A basic requirement for a new medical college is a pre-existing hospital that will serve as a teaching hospital. Corporate entities have hospitals in the major metros and that is where they will have to locate medical colleges. The earlier mandated land requirement for a medical college campus, a minimum of 25 acres of contiguous land, cannot be fulfilled in the metros. Not surprisingly, yet another tweak has been made in the regulation, prescribing 10 acres as the new minimum campus size for 9 cities including the main metros. With this, the stage is set for corporate entities to enter the medical education market. <br><br> Until now, medical education in India has been projected as a not-forprofit activity to be organised for the public good. While private bodies can run medical colleges, these can only be societies or trusts, legally non-profit organisations. In opening the door to corporate colleges, thus, a major policy change has been effected without changing the law or even a discussion in Parliament, but by simply getting a <strong>compliant</strong> MCI to change the regulation on establishment of medical colleges. This and other changes have been justified in the name of addressing the shortage of doctors. At the same time, over 50 existing medical colleges, including 15 run by the government, have been prohibited from admitting students in 2010 for having failed to meet the basic standards prescribed. Ninety per cent of these colleges have come up in the last 5 years. Particularly <strong>shocking</strong> is the phenomenon of government colleges <strong>falling short</strong> of standards approved by the Government. Why are state government institutions not able to meet the requirements that have been approved by the central government? A severe problem faced by government-run institutions is attracting and retaining teaching faculty, and this is likely to be among the major reasons for these colleges failing to satisfy the MCI norms. The crisis building up on the faculty front has been <strong>flagged</strong> by various commissions looking into problems of medical education over the years. <br><br> An indicator of the crisis is the attempt to conjure up faculty when MCI carries out inspections of new colleges, one of its regulatory functions. Judging by news reports, the practice of presenting fake faculty – students or private medical practitioners hired for the day – during MCI inspections in private colleges is common. What is interesting is that even government colleges are adopting <strong>unscrupulous</strong> methods. Another indicator is the extraordinary scheme, verging on the ridiculous that is being put in place by the MCI to make inspections 'foolproof'. Faculty in all medical colleges are to be issued an RFID-based smart card by the MCI with a unique Faculty Number. The card, it is argued, will eliminate the possibility of a teacher being shown on the faculty of more than one college and establish if the qualifications of a teacher are genuine. In the future, it is projected that biometric RFID readers will be installed in the colleges that will enable a Faculty Identification, Tracking and Monitoring System to monitor faculty from within the college and even remotely from MCI headquarters. <br><br> The picture above does not even start to reveal the true and pathetic situation of medical care especially in rural India. Only a fraction of the doctors and nursing professionals serve rural areas where 70 per cent of our population lives. The Health Ministry, with the help of the MCI, has been active in proposing yet another 'innovative' solution to the problem of lack of doctors in the rural areas. The proposal is for a three-and-a-half year course to obtain the degree of Bachelor of Rural Medicine and Surgery (BRMS). Only rural candidates would be able to join this course. The study and training would happen at two different levels – Community Health Centers for 18 months, and sub-divisional hospitals for a further period of 2 years – and be conducted by retired professors. After completion of training, they would only be able to serve in their own state in district hospitals, community health centres, and primary health centres. <br><br> The BRMS proposal has invited <strong>sharp</strong> criticism from some doctors' organisations on the grounds that it is discriminatory to have two different standards of health care – one for urban and the other for rural areas, and that the health care provided by such graduates will be compromised. At the other end is the opinion expressed by some that something is better than nothing, that since doctors do not want to serve in rural areas, the government may as well create a new cadre of medics who will be obliged to serve there. The debate will surely pick up after the government formally lays out its plans. What is apparent is that neither this proposal nor the various stopgap measures adopted so far address the root of the problem of health care. <br><br> The far larger issue is government policy, the low priority attached by the government to the social sector as a whole and the health sector in particular, evidenced in the paltry allocations for maintaining and upgrading medical infrastructure and medical education and for looking after precious human resources.

Which of the following is possibly the most appropriate title for the passage ?