Career in Indian Army

AT INDIA'S SERVICE: Women are inducted for short-service commission of five years in the Indian Army, extendable up to 10 years.

I am studying commerce in Class XII. I want to join the Indian Army. But, I wear spectacles. What should I do to join the Army? What course should I do after my Class XII for the purpose?

Yagya

You can get into the Army even if you are bespectacled. You need to have distant vision corrected to 6/6 and myopia of not more than 5.5. You should be a graduate in any discipline - BA or B.Com included - with at least 60 per cent marks from a recognised Indian university.

Women are inducted only for the short-service commission of five years, extendable up to 10 years. For candidates with a commerce background, the jobs available include those in the non-technical services like the Army Ordinance Corps and the Army Education Corps. The qualifying age for women is between 19 and 25 years. You must be in good physical and mental health, free from any disability that might affect your performance at work. Your weight must be at least 36 kg. The minimum acceptable height is 142 cm.

Most newspapers carry advertisements announcing the requirement of women officers in the Army, usually in January and February every year. For further details, you may contact the Additional Director-General of Recruiting (Women's entry section), West Block III, R.K. Puram, New Delhi-110 066.

We suggest that you also consider similar positions in the Navy, including the Logistics Cadre and in the ground duty branch of the Air Force.

Health management

I am a BA final year student. I want to make a career in health management. Please tell me about the admission procedure, the eligibility criteria, the institutes offering the course and the future prospects.

Parveen

Health management is emerging as an area of professional management. It is aimed at providing management skills to professionals responsible for health services in the country. There are two types of professionals who opt for health and hospital management -- medical professionals (medical graduates) and other regular graduates. While the technical aspects such as procurement of equipment and medical expendables, recruitment and training of staff, management of professionals and research work are supervised by the "doctor administrator", the management and assignment of duties of other staff, maintenance and services as well as security are taken care of by graduates trained in health services management.

List of institutes

Institutes offering hospital management courses are:

(1) AIIMS, New Delhi, offers 2-3 year course in Masters in Hospital Administration (eligibility: MBBS with 3-year working experience in a hospital) sponsored graduates with 7-year experience in hospital administration.

(2) Tata Institute of Social Sciences, Mumbai, provides a 2-year course in Masters in Hospital/Health Administration with 50 per cent marks and age below 45 years. The candidate must be MBBS/B.Sc. Nursing/ B.A./B.Com/B.Sc.

(3) Faculty of Management Studies (FMS), University of Delhi, New Delhi, offers 3-year (part time) course in health care management (eligibility: medical graduates with 5-year experience in hospital administration and sponsorship).

(4) Indian Institute of Health Management Research, Jaipur, offers a 2-year course in Master of Public Health/Master of Health Care Administration (eligibility: graduates with 50% marks, selection through ALMAT). Programmes offered by this in statute are in collaboration with University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, USA.

(5) Indian Institute of Social Welfare and Business Management, Calcutta, also offers a post-graduate diploma course in hospital management for graduates in any branch of medical science/pharmacy/biological sciences. Besides these institutes, some universities also offer such courses in hospital and health management, which include Punjab University, Chandigarh, Shivaji University, Vidyanagar, Kolhapur, Madurai Kamraj University, Madurai, Devi Ahilya Vishwavidyalaya, Institute of Management Studies, Indore.

T. Muralidharan