SRINAGAR: The government has said that Foreign Medical Graduates returning to India are required to meet stringent and uniform licensing conditions, including compulsory internships and national-level examinations, to ensure they are on par with Indian medical graduates before entering clinical practice.
Responding to an unstarred question in the Rajya Sabha on Tuesday, Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel outlined the regulatory framework governing Indian students who pursue medical education abroad and subsequently seek to practise medicine in India. The reply is of particular relevance to Jammu and Kashmir, which has seen a large number of students opting for medical education in foreign countries over the past decade due to limited seats at home.
The minister said that under the Foreign Medical Graduate Licentiate Regulations, 2021, no foreign-trained doctor is granted permanent registration unless a defined set of academic and clinical conditions is fulfilled. These include completion of a minimum 54-month medical degree course abroad, followed by a 12-month internship in the same foreign institution, with the medium of instruction being English and mandatory subjects as prescribed by the National Medical Commission.
In addition, Foreign Medical Graduates are required to be registered with the professional regulatory authority of the country where they obtained their degree, with licensing standards comparable to those applicable to citizens of that country. After returning to India, they must undergo a further 12-month supervised internship and clear the National Exit Test or any other mandated examination conducted by the National Medical Commission.
The government has said that the compulsory rotating medical internship for Foreign Medical Graduates is regulated to ensure parity with Indian medical graduates. This internship, undertaken after clearing the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination conducted by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences, follows the same standards of training, stipend and facilities applicable to Indian graduates.
Answering concerns about whether the existing framework is sufficient to maintain uniform standards, the minister said the current provisions are specifically designed to place Foreign Medical Graduates and Indian Medical Graduates on an equal footing at the point of licensure. The government has also said there is no proposal at present to alter the licensing requirements, including extending the duration of mandatory rural or supervised internships for Foreign Medical Graduates.
For regions such as Jammu and Kashmir, where hundreds of students return each year with foreign medical degrees, the clarification provides regulatory certainty at a time when debates over equivalence, internships and service conditions continue to shape the future of medical education and healthcare staffing in the Union Territory.
