World renowned IITs will no longer just be engineering institutes! They will soon offer MBBS courses too

IITs are known around the world for being one of the best engineering colleges. However, one of them will soon be recognized as the best medical college as well.

After HRD ministry nod, IIT-Kharagpur is now the first among IITs to offer medicine courses to students soon. Interestingly,
IIT-Kharagpur was also the first IIT to have a management school. The Vinod Gupta School of Management was started in 1993 and is often ranked among the top 20 business schools in the country.

You may think why are IITs venturing into the medical domain. The idea, as per the institute, is to be a research hospital where technological developments can take place, and local patients can benefit from them.

Plan is to kick-start the new course by 2019 with a batch of 50 students. However, a 400-bed hospital to be set up on the campus which will act as a teaching facility, will start admitting patients from mid-2018 itself. The super-speciality hospital will include departments, such as cardiology, neurology, orthopedic, out-patient, besides a medical diagnostic centre and an emergency ward. The permission from the Medical Council of India will come only after this hospital starts operating.

As per sources, several hospitals of repute have been approached to manage IIT-K hospital's operations. Associated doctors will have an opportunity to carry out medico-technical research. "We aim to introduce videography during treatment, with the patient's permission. This will allow us to gather information, which can be transmitted anywhere across the globe to other doctors, who can then go through the treatment procedure and records to make recommendations," said the institute deputy director.

Chances are medical aspirants won't have to appear for NEET, as IIT-K plans to have a separate entrance examination. Notably, IITs are governed by a separate law, which enables them to hold their own admission exams, like for engineering courses.