Last Updated on January 6, 2024 by The Health Master
CHANDIGARH: A corpus of Rs 200 crore has been created to promote integrated science and health research in the country, said Niti Aayogmember Dr V K Paul during his visit at the Government Medical College and Hospital(GMCH), Sector 32, on Tuesday.
“The government is working on a special research fund and scheme on integrated health research. A corpus has been made and Niti Aayog shall anchor it,” Paul said. However, the PGI is yet to start anything on alternative medicine. On this, Paul said, “AIIMS has an integrative health centre. Why is PGI not promoting it? Our policies on this are clear. We will have a centre of excellence here and GMCH can jointly work with it.”
Moreover, the Medical Council of India has changed its ways of promoting medical faculty, said Paul, who is also the chairman of MCI board of governors.
“Now, there is no need to be first author to get promoted from assistant to associate professor in medical colleges. This is to allow students to get a chance as real researchers,” he added.
“Earlier, two paper publications were mandatory. However, the one paper required now has to be indexed in known sources — Pubmed, scopus, science index etc. The other requirement is to be among the first three authors or the corresponding author. As we all cheat sometimes, students do not get credit for their work, which is why this new system has been designed,” he reiterated.
Exemption from publishing even a single research paper has been given to those who are principal investigators or co-investigators in the projects from national agencies like DBT, DST, CSIR, DRDO, space agency, he said.
