New Delhi: Moving ahead with the formation of the National Medical Commission (NMC) to replace the existing Medical Council of India (MCI), the Ministry of Health recently announced the constitution of Search Committee that is responsible for recommending the names of the key members of the NMC including the Chairperson to the government.

Constitution of the Search Committee of NMC

As per the NMC Act, the Search Committee consists of 6 members including the Cabinet Secretary as Chairperson as well as the Secretary to the Government of India in charge of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare as the Convenor. Besides these, three members are nominated by the Central Government who are experts in their field, possessing outstanding qualifications and experience of not less than twenty-five year in the field of medical education, public health education and health research. One member is nominated by Government being an expertin the field of management or law or economics or science and technology while one member is nominated from the part time members. The last of these was recently chosen by the Government using "chit method" earlier this month

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Through a recent notice the Health Ministry recently announced the names of the members of the search committee being the following

(a) the Cabinet Secretary - Chairperson

(b) (i) Dr. Pankaj Chaturvedi, Oncologist, Tata Memorial Centre, Mumbai - Member

(ii) Dr. D. Nageshwar Reddy, Gastroenterologist, Asian Institute of Gastroenterology, Hyderabad, Telangana - Member

(iii) Dr. Balram Bhargava, Cardiologist, Secretary, Department of Health Research and Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research, New Delhi - Member

(c) Dr. Ajay Kumar Khanna, Elected member of the Uttarakhand Medical Council - Member

(d) Dr.(Mrs.) Renu Swamp, Secretary, Department of Biotechnology - Member

(e) the Secretary to the Government of India in charge of the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare to be the Convenor -Member

What Will the Search Committee Do?

The search committee is responsible for recommending the names of the Chairperson as well as the various members of the National Medical Commission, besides the ex-officio members. had recently reports that the Health Ministry had invited applications to the various posts of the National Medical Commission . In response, the Ministry is reported to have received more than 300 applications from the medical fraternity in India for the 7 vacant spots that include the Chairman NMC as well as 6 other posts. The committee will now go through these applications and make recommendations for the posts to the government,

The National Medical Commission will be a 33 members body, 25 of which were recently finalised by the government.

Besides this, if in future, the posts of NMC become vacant, the search committee will again come into action to help the government find the right fit for the respective posts.
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