New Delhi: Rejecting the suggestion of the
Health Ministry that IITs should not be permitted to start
conventional courses in medicine, the HRD Ministry is set to
amend a law to allow the elite institutes to offer courses in
the discipline.
Minister of State for HRD D Purandeswari today said in
Lok Sabha that the IIT Act will be amended to incorporate
`Medicine` in it. This will help the IITs to offer programmes
bringing the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering
together.
In reply to a written question, she said while IIT
Kharagpur proposed to introduce new medical education
programmes like MBBS, MD, MS and Ph.D, the Ministry of Health
and Family Welfare opined that establishing medical colleges
by the IITs for starting conventional medicine courses would
not be advisable.
"However, appreciating the fact that the modern trends in
medical education and research in technology and medicine in
all the developed and most of the developing countries are
seen hand-in-hand, the government proposes to incorporate
`Medicine` in the IIT Act," she said.
Purandeswari said the programme will bring the two
important disciplines of medicine and engineering together.
"On consultation with the Ministry of Health and Family
Welfare regarding the proposal to include `Medicine` within
the scope of the IIT Act, 1961, it was opined that
establishing medical colleges by the IITs for starting
conventional medicine courses would not be advisable," she
said.
The IIT Kharagpur has come up with a concrete proposal in
this regard and plans to start a medical college in
collaboration with Indian Railways.
At a meeting of experts in the Health ministry in
February this year, it was observed that IITs should start
courses on health information technology, biomedical
engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or
starting MBBS courses.
PTI
