High-level panel to recast UGC, AICTE

The Prime Minister’s Office (PMO) has directed the high-level committee, headed by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, to prepare a road map for reforming the two regulatory bodies in the field of education — the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — as well as the board looking after Homeopathy and Ayurvedic education in the country.

NMC:

The committee has already proposed the scrapping of Medical Council of India (MCI) and replacing it with theNational Medical Commission (NMC). The main objective behind this is to end the inspector raj in the medical field in the country.

Details:

• NMC will become the main regulatory body and will take over all roles and responsibilities of the MCI.
• NMC will have eminent doctors and experts from related fields to suggest the direction that should be given to medical education in the country so as to ensure that the quality of education is at par with global standards.
• NMC will have around 19-20 members and their tenure will be about five years. It will also have members from other fields such as economics, law, etc in a bid to inculcate more professionalism in the body.
• It will have a chairman as well as there will be four Boards — Under Graduate Medical Board, Post Graduate Medical Board, Accreditation and Assessment Board and a board for registration of medical colleges as well monitoring of the ethics in the profession.
• These boards will be given autonomy and they will work on the fields for which they are formed.