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Medical Council Of India
India is a nation with more than a billion people. Naturally ensuring quality medical facilities is a big challenge here. While the affluent can opt for private hospitals and luxury services, the only hope for the lower income groups is the public medical system. So it is extremely important to ensure a flow of well qualified medical professionals in the system and hence it is also important to ensure quality medical education. The Medical Council of India (MCI) is the statutory body dedicated to ensuring uniform standards of medical education all over India. It works under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of the Government of India and the MCI grants recognition and gives accreditation to the medical colleges and universities across the country and also grants registration to medical practitioners. It is responsible for monitoring the entire medical service system in the country.
Like most other major public bodies, the Medical Council of India also traces back its origins to the British era. It was established in 1934 by the British administration under the Indian Medical Council Act, 1933. It was reconstituted after independence with minor changes and its basic functions remained the same. Since then it has been responsible for ensuring the quality if medical education in the country. While its role has been commendable over the years, it has also seen some dark patches such as the corruption scam by its chairman Dr.Ketan Desai in recent years. He drew attention of the authorities as he was on the boards multiple medical universities thus raising suspicion and eventually it was proven that he was taking bribes from medical colleges for granting them undeserved accreditation. After the uproar, the board was suspended and a new one was formed.
The main functions of the Medical Council of India
The primary function of MCI is the maintenance of uniform standards among the institutions of medical education across India. It also takes care of regulation of postgraduate education in the medical colleges accredited by it. Apart from that it is supposed to be responsible for the recognition of medical qualifications that are granted by various medical institutions to their students. Another critical issue that it has to look into is the recognition of foreign qualifications for those who have studied abroad and wants to work in India. Also, it takes care of the accreditation process of medical colleges to decide how they are performing and whether they deserve the government grants or not. It also registers the qualified doctors and maintains records of the same.
Awards Instituted by the MCI
The MCI has instituted several awards to encourage good performance in the field of medicine. The Dr. B. C. Roy Award is presented to medical personnel in various categories related to the field of medical services. Similarly the Hari Om Ashram Award has been instituted to encourage research and development and it is awarded for basic, clinical and operational research categories. It has also instituted the Silver Jubilee Research Award for any outstanding contribution in medical research with and intention of providing assistance to bright but needed scholars.
Overall, the Medical Council of India manages a difficult task of standardizing the medical education and service across a large nation. While it has had a few setbacks in recent times, its service has been crucial in forming the infrastructure for medical education across the nation in the last few decades.