"One-Third AIIMS Faculty Posts Vacant, Parliament Informed by Health Ministry"
Institute of National Importance (INI)
A statutory designation for premier educational/research institutions established by individual Acts of Parliament.
NORCET
Nursing Officer Recruitment Common Eligibility Test conducted by AIIMS Delhi for nursing recruitment across AIIMS.
The All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) are premier public medical institutions established as Institutes of National Importance (INIs) under individual Acts of Parliament. The original AIIMS New Delhi was set up under the AIIMS Act, 1956, while subsequent AIIMS institutions were established under the AIIMS (Amendment) Act, 2012 and related legislation. The expansion of the AIIMS network — from a single institution to 20 AIIMS across the country — was a flagship commitment under successive national health policy frameworks, aimed at addressing the acute shortage of tertiary healthcare infrastructure and trained medical specialists in underserved regions.
The governance of AIIMS institutions is distinct from that of ordinary government hospitals. Each AIIMS functions as an autonomous body under its own Act, with an Institute Body and a Governing Body overseeing administration. Faculty recruitment is governed by Standing Selection Committees constituted under the respective Acts. This autonomy, while designed to insulate academic appointments from political interference, also means that vacancies cannot be filled through a single centralised mechanism — each institute must run its own selection process, creating coordination challenges at scale.
India's public health system has historically suffered from a severe shortage of trained specialists and faculty. The National Health Policy, 2017 acknowledged the need to increase the health workforce and improve the doctor-to-population ratio, which remains well below the WHO-recommended norm of 1:1,000. The expansion of AIIMS was intended to simultaneously address tertiary care access and produce postgraduate specialists and faculty for the broader medical education ecosystem.
Faculty vacancies in AIIMS are structurally distinct from vacancies in ordinary government departments. AIIMS faculty are simultaneously clinicians, researchers, and teachers — a combination that demands rare, highly specialised qualifications. The three-tier faculty hierarchy (Professor, Additional Professor, Associate Professor) requires candidates with advanced postgraduate degrees, research publications, and clinical experience, making the eligible pool inherently small. This supply-side constraint is compounded by competition from the private sector, which offers substantially higher remuneration without the administrative burdens of a public institution.
The location factor is particularly significant for the newer AIIMS. Institutions established in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities — such as those in Rewa, Bibinagar, Gorakhpur, or Kalyani — struggle to attract faculty who prefer metropolitan postings for professional networking, spousal employment, and children's education. …
There is a Parliamentary System of Government in India because the
A Parliamentary System of Government is one in which
With reference to the All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), consider the following statements:
1.All AIIMS institutions are governed by a single unified Act of Parliament.
2.Faculty selection at each AIIMS is conducted by a Standing Selection Committee constituted under the respective Institute's Act.
3.The INI-CET examination is conducted by AIIMS New Delhi for selection of Junior Residents at Institutes of National Importance.
Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
Which of the following best explains why faculty vacancies persist in newly established AIIMS located in Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities, even when eligible candidates exist nationally?
Assertion (A): Persistent vacancies in AIIMS faculty positions affect not only patient care but also the broader postgraduate medical education pipeline in India.
Reason (R): AIIMS institutions function simultaneously as tertiary care hospitals and as the primary producers of postgraduate medical specialists and future faculty for the national health system.
Which of the following is correct?
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