BioVoice News April 2017 Issue 11 Volume 1 | Page 86

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postgraduates jittery across the country . There is widespread resentment among Medical M . Sc . postgraduates , whose grouse is that hundreds of them will either lose jobs or be demoted to the role of laboratory technicians if the new rules are implemented by all state governments . However , the Union Health Ministry is firm on its stand .
Mr Sridhar Rao , NMMTA president , mentioned , “ NMMTA protests this unjust exclusion and demands that the National Council for Clinical Establishment modifies its guidelines to accommodate medical M . Sc degree ( irrespective of Ph . D ) as a qualification to interpret and sign diagnostic test reports in Microbiology and Biochemistry . Since medical M . Sc is included in the first schedule of Indian Medical Council Act , 1956 ,
the health ministry is implored that medical M . Sc degree holders be registered in the central or state medical councils . Laboratory testing services are not the practice of medicine , therefore health ministry must not restrict the role of interpretation & signing laboratory reports to doctors only ”.
India , UK to establish joint crop science centre for research & training
A Memorandum of Understanding has been signed for establishing a joint India-UK collaborative centre in crop-science . Aims and objectives of the centre are establishment of a Research Centre located in India and a joint fellowship programme in plant sciences to facilitate the exchange of PhD students and Postdoctoral researchers between the partnering UK and Indian institutions .
Besides that integration with continuing DBT- UK activities , such as the DBT-Cambridge
Lectureships and the UK-India Virtual Joint Centres in Agricultural Nitrogen . Capacity building , leadership development and developing robust farmer outreach components .
The aim of the MoU is to develop a long term partnership between India and UK in Plant Sciences . Steps have been initiated and joint activities have commenced which includes the Joint Faculty Programme : The Department of Biotechnology in partnership with University of Cambridge , UK have initiated research-oriented lectureship programme at Cambridge University and a partner institute in India . The duration of lectureship is for a fixed term of five year of which three year of this will be in India and two year will be in
86 BioVoiceNews | April 2017