Politics
India Shuts Down Medical College in Kashmir Amid Protests Over Muslim Students’ Admissions
On January 6, the National Medical Commission (NMC), India’s federal regulator for medical education, revoked the recognition of the Shri Mata Vaishno Devi Medical Institute (SMVDMI), located in Reasi district, a mountainous area overlooking the Pir Panjal range that separates the Jammu plains from the Kashmir Valley.
The decision came weeks after protests erupted over the religious composition of the college’s first-ever MBBS batch, launched in November.
Of the 50 students admitted, 42 were Muslims, most of them residents of Kashmir, while seven were Hindus and one was a Sikh.
The college, founded by a Hindu religious charity and partly funded by the government, had launched its first five-year Bachelor of Medicine and Bachelor of Surgery (MBBS) programme this year.
Admissions to medical colleges across India—both public and private—are conducted through a centralized system based on the National Entrance Examination Test (NEET), administered by the federal National Testing Agency (NTA).
More than two million students appear for the exam annually, competing for approximately 120,000 MBBS seats nationwide.
Students who score high typically enter public colleges, where fees are lower but cutoffs are steep. Those meeting the minimum threshold but falling short of public college cutoffs often enroll in private institutions, including SMVDMI.
One such student was Saniya Jan, an 18-year-old from Kashmir’s Baramulla district, who described her selection as a dream come true.
“It was a dream come true – to be a doctor,” she told Al Jazeera. She chose SMVDMI during counselling because it was 316 kilometers from her home, comparatively closer than other medical colleges.
Her parents drove her to Reasi when classes began in November. “My daughter has been a topper since childhood. I have three daughters, and she is the brightest. She really worked hard to get a medical seat,” her father, Gazanfar Ahmad, said.
However, soon after the academic session began, local Hindu groups launched protests, demanding that Muslim students’ admissions be scrapped.
Protesters argued that since the college was largely funded by offerings from devotees at the Mata Vaishno Devi Temple, a prominent Hindu shrine, Muslim students had “no business being there.”
Demonstrations continued for weeks, with protesters gathering daily outside the college gates and raising slogans.
Legislators from Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) wrote petitions to Kashmir’s Lieutenant Governor, urging that admissions be reserved exclusively for Hindu students.
The lieutenant governor serves as the federally appointed administrator of the disputed region.
As protests escalated, demands extended to the complete closure of the college.
On January 6, the NMC announced it had withdrawn the college’s authorization, citing failure to meet “minimum standard requirements” for medical education.
According to the commission, the college suffered from deficiencies in teaching faculty, hospital bed occupancy, outpatient flow, library facilities, and operating theatres. A day later, the letter of permission allowing the college to operate was formally withdrawn.
Students, however, strongly disputed these claims. “I don’t think the college lacked resources,” said Jahan, a student who gave only her second name. “Some colleges only have one cadaver per batch. This college had four, and every student got individual dissection time.”
Another student, Rafiq, said relatives studying in government medical colleges in Srinagar lacked similar facilities. “Even they don’t have the kind of facilities that we had here,” he said.
Saniya’s father echoed these views, saying that during admission everything appeared normal. “The college was good. The faculty was supportive. It looked like no one cared about religion inside the campus,” he said.
Political analyst Zafar Choudhary, based in Jammu, questioned the timing of the NMC’s decision. “Logic dictates that infrastructure would have improved since classes began. So how did these deficiencies suddenly appear?” he asked.
He also dismissed the protesters’ demands as baseless, noting that admissions are religion-neutral. “There is a system in place. Students give multiple preferences, and selections are based on merit. How is it their fault?” he said.
Al Jazeera attempted to contact SMVDMI’s executive head, Yashpal Sharma, for comment, but he did not respond.
The college has issued no public statement since losing its authorization.
Students have since packed their belongings and returned home.
Another student, Salim Manzoor, pointed out that Hindu students are enrolled under reserved quotas in a medical college in Muslim-majority Kashmir, questioning why Muslim students were now being targeted elsewhere.
The BJP has denied claims that Muslim students were unwelcome, saying concerns stemmed from “religious sentiments” tied to the shrine.
BJP spokesperson Altaf Thakur said the recognition was withdrawn solely due to regulatory shortcomings and not religious bias.
Last week, Omar Abdullah, chief minister of Indian-administered Kashmir, announced that affected students would be accommodated in other medical colleges through supernumerary seats, ensuring their education is not disrupted.
He strongly condemned the protests, stating: “You have played with the future of medical students. If ruining students’ futures brings you happiness, then celebrate it.”
Regional legislator Tanvir Sadiq said the university housing the medical college had received more than $13 million in government funding since 2017, making all Kashmiris stakeholders. “Anyone lawfully domiciled in Kashmir can study there,” he said.
Nasir Khuehami, head of the Jammu and Kashmir Students’ Association, warned that framing education along religious lines could dangerously communalize the sector.
He noted that Muslim-run minority institutions across India do not exclude Hindu students.
Back in Baramulla, Saniya waits anxiously for her future to be decided. “I cleared one of the hardest exams in India and earned my seat on merit,” she said. “Now everything has crashed. This happened because of our identity. They turned our merit into religion.”
China said on Thursday it would build a “childbirth-friendly society” in the next five years, pledging to address concerns over employment, education, medical care, health and income, according to an official government report.
Authorities will improve population services and respond proactively on ageing, including “promoting high-quality, full employment, improving the income distribution system, and refining the social security system.”
They will also foster “positive attitudes towards marriage and childbearing,” the report said, adding that it would boost housing support for families with children.
China’s population fell for a fourth consecutive year in 2025, as the birth rate plunged to a record low, official data showed in January, with experts warning of further decline.
Policymakers have made population planning a key part of the country’s economic strategy and this year Beijing faces a total potential cost of around 180 billion yuan ($25.8 billion) to boost births, according to Reuters estimates.
Key costs are the national child subsidy, which was introduced for the first time last year, as well as a pledge that women throughout pregnancy have “no out-of-pocket expenses” in 2026, with all medical costs, including in vitro fertilisation (IVF), fully reimbursable under its national medical insurance fund.
Authorities will continue to implement the childcare subsidy system and expand demonstrations and trials for subsidised childcare services, the report said, without giving further details.
Services for women in early stages of pregnancy as well as reproductive health would be improved while authorities aimed to better prevent and treat birth defects.
Authorities will also refine policies on free preschool education and increase the supply of regular senior secondary school places, with government spending on education mandated to be higher than 4% of GDP, the report said.
Developing the ‘silver economy’
China’s population has been shrinking since 2022 and is ageing rapidly, complicating Beijing’s plan to boost domestic consumption and rein in debt.
New policies will be introduced to promote “high-quality development of the silver economy”, targeted at those aged 60 and older, with elderly care services to be increased, particularly in rural areas, the report said.
Authorities will also draw up measures to refine supportive policies designed for seniors including pension finance, wellness and care, it said.
By 2035, the number of Chinese over-60s is set to hit 400 million – roughly equal to the populations of the US and Italy combined – meaning hundreds of millions of people are set to leave the workforce at a time when pension budgets are already stretched.
China has already increased retirement ages, with men now expected to work until they are 63 rather than 60, and women until they are 58 rather than 55.
WASHINGTON: The United States Senate has rejected a resolution aimed at limiting President Donald Trump’s authority to continue military strikes against Iran.
The bipartisan measure, introduced by Tim Kaine and Rand Paul, sought to require the withdrawal of US forces from hostilities with Iran unless Congress formally authorized the campaign.
However, the resolution failed in a 53–47 vote, reflecting strong support from Republican lawmakers for the president’s military actions.
Debate Over War Powers
Democratic lawmakers argued that the president had bypassed Congress by ordering airstrikes on Iran without prior authorization.
Senator Tim Kaine said that classified briefings provided to lawmakers did not present evidence of an imminent threat from Iran to the United States.
Republicans, meanwhile, defended the military action, saying Iran had long posed a threat to US forces and interests in the region.
Growing Conflict in the Middle East
The vote comes amid an escalating conflict following US-Israeli strikes on Iran, which triggered retaliatory missile and drone attacks across the Gulf region.
The conflict has already resulted in the deaths of senior Iranian officials, including Ali Khamenei, and casualties among US troops stationed in the Middle East.
War Powers Act
The resolution invoked the War Powers Resolution, a law passed after the Vietnam War to limit the president’s ability to conduct military operations without congressional approval.
Even if the measure had passed both the Senate and the House of Representatives, President Trump could have vetoed it, requiring a two-thirds majority.
The US military asked mining companies last Friday to help boost domestic supplies of 13 critical minerals used to make semiconductors, weapons and other products, a document reviewed by Reuters showed.
The request, the day before the US and Israel launched strikes on Iran, is the latest example of Washington’s push for more access to the materials used widely in warfare.
The Pentagon asked members of the Defence Industrial Base Consortium (DIBC), a group of more than 1,500 companies, universities and others that supply the military, for proposals to be submitted by March 20 for projects that could mine, process or recycle select minerals, the document showed.
While the DIBC has worked on minerals-related issues for some time, there was no immediate indication as to whether the timing was intentionally coordinated to coincide with the start of the strikes on Iran.
The list of 13 minerals sought includes arsenic, bismuth, gadolinium, germanium, graphite, hafnium, nickel, samarium, tungsten, vanadium, ytterbium, yttrium and zirconium.
The US is reliant on imports for most of the 13. China is a dominant global producer of all of them.
DIBC member Guardian Metal Resources plans to apply for funding for its two tungsten projects in Nevada, said J.T. Starzecki, the company’s executive chairman. Tungsten is used to harden steel and China is the world’s largest producer.
“This is the opportunity we’ve been waiting for,” Starzecki told Reuters. “Our plan is to look for an application that would give us a funding package to allow us to get to full production at both sites.”
American Tungsten, which is developing an Idaho mine for that metal, plans to apply for funding next week that would complement a loan it has applied for from the US Export-Import Bank, said CEO Ali Haji.
The Pentagon asked for detailed information on the costs, including labour and material, needed to build a mine or processing facility. Projects could be awarded development funds ranging from $100 million to over $500 million, according to the request.
The document did not specify why only those 13 minerals were chosen. Some — including germanium, graphite and yttrium — have been subject to export restrictions by China, the top global producer.
Yttrium shortages, especially, have set off alarm bells throughout the aerospace industry. One of the 17 rare earths, yttrium is used in coatings that keep engines and turbines from melting at high temperatures. Without regular application of these coatings, engines cannot be used.
Colorado-based Energy, also a DIBC member, said it is developing facilities to process gadolinium and samarium by 2027, and is considering processing yttrium.
“The domestic supply of critical minerals remains essential to safeguarding both national security and economic stability,” said Mark Chalmers, the Energy Fuels CEO.
Nickel is a widely traded metal and Indonesia is the top global producer. Yet Jakarta has been throttling exports of the metal used widely in stainless steel and battery production.
The White House, DIBC and Pentagon did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
Latest request
DIBC’s request is just the latest attempt by the Trump administration to increase US supply of key critical minerals. China has been using its market control as diplomatic leverage in ongoing trade disputes with Washington.
Last month, Trump officials launched a $12 billion minerals stockpile backed by the US Export-Import Bank and proposed a preferential minerals trading bloc with more than 50 allies.
That trading bloc would aim to use reference prices for minerals derived in part by a Pentagon-created artificial intelligence programme, Reuters reported last week.
The administration has also taken equity stakes in rare earths miner MP Materials, Lithium Americas, and copper-and-cobalt developer Trilogy Metals.
Separately on Wednesday, the Defence Logistics Agency, which buys a range of goods for the US military, asked for information from miners on potentially acquiring lithium, chromium and tellurium for military stockpiles.
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