The National Medical Commission (NMC) has made it mandatory for all medical colleges across India to implement face-based Aadhaar authentication. (Image for representation)
Credit: Reuters Photo
Bengaluru: To detect “ghost” faculty members, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has made it mandatory for all medical colleges across India to implement face-based Aadhaar authentication to mark staff attendance.
The NMC has decided to fully shift to the new system from May 1. In a public notice, the NMC has asked all the faculty members to install the face-based Aadhaar Authentication App (mobile phone-based) on their mobile phones. The application is available on Android Play Store and Apple App-store.
Currently the faculties of the medical colleges mark their attendance through Aadhaar Enabled Biometric Attendance System (AEBAS).
“All Medical Colleges/Institutions NMC are presently marking attendance through the NMC AEBAS system. To leverage the latest technology and to make the attendance process user-friendly, the NMC has decided to fully shift to face-based Aadhaar authentication for marking attendance on NMC AEBAS from 01 st May 2025,” reads the public notice.
The face-based Aadhaar authentication with UIDAI RD is currently in use in various Government Offices through the NIC, the NMC stated.
Meanwhile, the NMC has directed the colleges to share the GPS location of different points in the college with NMC so that the attendance can be marked within 100-meter radius of a given GPS location in the college.
“From 01st May, marking of attendance on NMC AEBAS vide Finger Authentication device will be discontinued and only the face bio-metric authentication will be permitted. Dean/Principals of all Medical Colleges/Institutions shall take necessary action for installation of above application to mobile phones of all faculties of their institution,” directed NMC.
In the public notice NMC clearly stated that it is to prevent ghost faculties.
“To prevent ghost faculties at medical colleges, the NMC has made it mandatory for all medical colleges across the nation to implement face-based Aadhaar authentication for marking attendance of faculties,” the NMC has said. From now on the NMC will directly monitor the faculty attendance.
Medical colleges penalised
It can be recalled that during the 2024 academic year, the NMC had penalised several medical colleges in Karnataka, including government ones, for not having adequate faculties.
Speaking to DH, a senior member of the Syndicate at Rajiv Gandhi University of Health Sciences (RGUHS), said, “Ghost faculties is an age-old practice at medical colleges to pass through the NMC inspection. Ghost faculties will be present at the colleges only during the inspection to cover-up the faculty shortage and to get NMC nod.”
The member even said that ghost faculties are more seen in subjects like anatomy, biochemistry, forensic medicine, pharmacology and microbiology.