Rejecting the health ministry's suggestion that the IITs should not be permitted to start conventional courses in medicine, the HRD ministry is set to amend a law to allow the elite institutes to offer courses in the discipline.

Minister of state for HRD D Purandeswari today said in Lok Sabha that the IIT Act will be amended to incorporate 'Medicine' in it. This will help the IITs to offer programmes bringing the diverse disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

In reply to a written question, she said while IIT Kharagpur proposed to introduce new medical education programmes like MBBS, MD, MS and Ph.D, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare opined that establishing medical colleges by the IITs for starting conventional medicine courses would not be advisable.

"However, appreciating the fact that the modern trends in medical education and research in technology and medicine in all the developed and most of the developing countries are seen hand-in-hand, the government proposes to incorporate 'Medicine' in the IIT Act," she said.

Purandeswari said the programme will bring the two important disciplines of medicine and engineering together.

"On consultation with the ministry of health and family welfare regarding the proposal to include 'Medicine' within the scope of the IIT Act, 1961, it was opined that establishing medical colleges by the IITs for starting conventional medicine courses would not be advisable," she said.

The IIT Kharagpur has come up with a concrete proposal in this regard and plans to start a medical college in collaboration with Indian Railways.

At a meeting of experts in the health ministry in February this year, it was observed that IITs should start courses on health information technology, biomedical engineering and e-health rather than running a hospital or starting MBBS courses.