The Union ministry of health and family welfare recently reconstituted the Board of Governors for the Medical Council of India (MCI) and appointed renowned cardiologist Dr K K Talwar as the chairman of the new Board of Governors for the MCI.

Dr Talwar has been a familiar figure at the All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS) and has also been the director of the Post Graduate Institute of Medical Education and Research (PGIMER),Chandigarh.

Other members nominated on the board subsequent to the promulgation of the ordinance extending the supersession of the MCI by another year are Dr Purushtham Lal, chairman of Metro Hospital, Professor Harbhajan Singh Rassam from Max Hospital, Dr Rajiv Chintaman Yeravdekar from Symbiosis International University and Professor K S Sharma from Tata Memorial Hospital.

The term of the present members of the Board of Governors, headed by Dr  S K Sarin, ends on May 14. Another clause has been added to the functioning of the new board that makes it necessary for all members to work as full-time officials of the MCI.

Union health minister Ghulam Nabi Azad had also been nettled for its unilateral decision to introduce the controversial Common Entrance Test (CET) for graduate and postgraduate medical academic programs in India. According to the notification, a single entrance examination was to be introduced that would be conducted for MBBS and MD courses offered by all 271 medical colleges in the country, of which 138 are operated by the government and 133 are under private management.

The health ministry had been put under a lot of pressure by state governments such as those of Tamil Nadu and Karnataka to abandon the idea for the CET. The MCI board of governors and the health ministry had recently had another tiff because of the board's decision to appoint a person of their choice as the secretary.

MCI is a statutory body charged with the responsibility of establishing and maintaining uniform standards of medical education and recognition of medical qualifications. It also ensures the ethical practice of medicine by all registered medical practitioners.