Foreign degree not enough to be a doctor in India

By siliconindia   |   Wednesday, 23 September 2009, 15:55 IST   |    13 Comments
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Foreign degree not enough to be a doctor in India
New Delhi: A medical student getting the degree from a foreign university will not be enough to practice as a doctor in India, according to a new ruling of the Supreme Court (SC). The person has to clear the screening test conducted by the Medical Council of India (MCI) before starting the practice. The screening test will also be mandatory for those students who have got MBBS degrees from a country with which India has a reciprocity agreement, reports The Economic Times. Under this rule, foreign nationals with medical degrees from their countries could practice in India without appearing in the screening test and Indians with MBBS degree from home could go there and treat patients. However, the new ruling by the SC has changed the ground rules. From now, if an Indian student gets a medical degree from a foreign country covered under the reciprocity clause and wants to practice in India, he can do so only after clearing the MCI's screening test. At present, certain medical qualifications of UK, Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, New Zealand, South Africa, Ireland, Nepal, Pakistan and Bangladesh are covered under the reciprocity clause. The worst affected would be Indian students who had made a beeline for medical degrees from colleges in Nepal after the MCI had refused to recognize medical degrees from institutes in former USSR countries, which had liberal admission criteria. Many students went to get admission in medical colleges in Nepal, with which India has a reciprocity clause, and had approached the SC after MCI said they were required to appear in the screening test.

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