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(By Yogesh K. Upadhyaya. Email: yogesh@optonline.net)
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As stated in past issues, the Institutes of Technology Act, (IT Act) 1961 is expected to be modified by the parliament.
It has been earlier mentioned the BHU Executive Council has approved amendment of the Statutes of BHU Act, (pertaining to IT-BHU) incorporating the changes required for the conversion of IT-BHU into IIT-BHU. This will be officially approved by the ordnance issued by the Visitor of the University (President of India). The cabinet note was prepared by HRD Ministry and sent to Legal Affairs of the Law ministry for suggestions. The Law ministry has sent the file back to MHRD with the suggestions/ comments to be addressed. The main objection was due the fact that MHRD has proposed in the cabinet note to include setting up of medical colleges by IITs (see news item below). This has been objected by the Law Ministry, which has asked for a review of cabinet note. According to current set up, Health Ministry is responsible for supervising setting up of medical colleges and running of medical courses (MBBS, etc.)
After incorporating the suggestions of Law ministry, the cabinet note will be sent to the Law ministry for clearance. After that, the note will be distributed to several ministries for their comments and suggestions to be incorporated in the revised note. The revised note will be forwarded to PMO (Prime Minister’s Office) and then to the Cabinet Secretariat for Cabinet meeting.
Cabinet will review the file and send its recommendation with a cabinet note to CCPA (Cabinet Committee on Parliamentary Affairs). CCPA will have any last-minute check on file before sending it to Parliament for inclusion in the Bill.
Parliament will then introduce the IT Amendment Bill and approve it for amendment of IT Act.
The passing of amendment of IT Act will depend upon the approval of cabinet note by the cabinet. After approval of the cabinet note, it will take about a month to complete the other formalities before the IT Bill is tabled in the parliament. Depending upon the time taken for clearing of cabinet note, the IT Bill can be expected to be introduced in the next parliament session (July-August), or later.
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http://www.ndtv.com/news/india/proposal-to-introduce-mbbs-course-in-iits-in-jeopardy-25826.php
Proposal to introduce MBBS course in IITs in jeopardy
Press Trust of India, Sunday May 16, 2010, New Delhi
A proposal to allow IITs to start courses in medicine will be delayed with the Law Ministry sending back a Cabinet note of the HRD Ministry with a recommendation that further discussions were needed on the issue.
The Law Ministry has suggested that the HRD Ministry should discuss the matter further with the Health Ministry, which had earlier disfavoured such a proposal.
The Law Ministry has sent back a Cabinet note of the Ministry of HRD (MHRD) regarding amendment to the IIT Act for incorporating 'Medicine' in it to enable the elite institutes offer courses in that discipline.
"Law Ministry has said further discussion should be conducted with the Health Ministry on the issue of IITs' plan to offer courses in medicine," official sources said.
The MHRD proposes to amend the IIT Act, 1961, to incorporate 'Medicine' in it and include names of eight new IITs under the Act to give them status of statutory bodies.
The amendment of the IIT Act aims to enable the institutes to offer programmes bringing the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering together.
The IIT Kharagpur has already proposed to start a medical institution in collaboration with Indian Railways and introduce programmes like MBBS, MD, MS and Ph.D.
The MHRD had earlier sought the views of the Health Ministry which opined that establishing medical colleges by the IITs for starting conventional medicine courses would not be advisable.
However, the MHRD rejected the suggestions of Health Ministry and wanted to go ahead with an amendment in IIT Act for the purpose. It moved a Cabinet note for the purpose.
It said the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all developed and most of the developing countries are seen going hand-in-hand.
At a meeting of experts organised by 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 commencing MBBS courses.
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Additional news
IITs to soon venture into other domains
http://expressbuzz.com/cities/bangalore/iits-to-soon-venture-into-other-domains/174348.html
Excerpts
Sameer Ranjan Bakshi
First Published: 18 May 2010 03:04:51 AM IST
BANGALORE: The Indian Institutes of Technology (IITs) will soon go beyond their traditional domain of technological education. Law, management, social sciences, and even medicine are fields that they will make their foray into.
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