IIM-B eases internship norms for students with work experience

Summer internships, as part of the post-graduate programme at the Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore (IIM-B), are now optional for students who come in with at least 34 months of work experience. The students will have the option to work on other projects in campus or outside, or pursue other plans during April-May, the period when students usually take up summer internships. It has not been decided yet whether these students have the option to take up extra credit courses in campus during that period.

“We had some students come back after the internship and telling us that the work they did during the eight weeks was similar to the work they did before joining the course at IIM; so we decided to give them an option to take up the internships this year,” Ms. Sapna Agarwal, Head, Career Development Services at IIM-B, told Business Line. About 25 per cent of the 375 students in the current batch come with work experience of over 34 months, but it is still early to see how many of them will opt out of the summer internship, she added.

The series of pre-placement talks at IIM-B by companies who will recruit students for summer placements in April-May 2012 started in mid-August and the interviews will start from 7th November 2011, Ms. Agarwal said. About 130 companies across sectors like consulting, finance and management are expected recruit students for the summer placements this year.

Summer internships, for eight weeks during April-May, are otherwise compulsory for all first-year students pursuing the post-graduate programme at IIM-B.

Source: The Hindu Business Line, September 11, 2011

Medical Council of India pulled up by CIC

The Central Information Commission (CIC) has expressed surprise at the Medical Council of India (MCI) for not having the document by which a particular medical degree is recognised. In a recent order, Information Commissioner Shailesh Gandhi said: “Medical degrees are recognised nationally based on the recognition of the Medical Council of India and such negligence must be stopped.”

Issuing the order on a case filed by a Noida resident, Dr. G. S. Thind, who had asked the MCI to confirm the correctness of information put out on January 12, 2008, on the website of Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh, that its MD preventive medicine / community medicine granted by Aligarh Muslim University was recognised by the Medical Council of India as per IMC Act, 1956.

The appellant had noticed that on the MCI’s website two different years – 1987 and 1997 – had been mentioned for recognising the degree of MD (Community Medicine) issued by Jawaharlal Nehru Medical College, Aligarh. He sought to know which of the two was correct.

The CIC said the MCI subsequently corrected the website and stated that the year for recognition was 1987. It said this was based on a record which is mentioned in the department index. Thereafter, Dr. Thind produced before the Commission a letter dated September 11, 1991, in which it appeared that the MCI was requesting the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare of Government of India to recognise the said degree. The MCI admitted that the recognition has to be authorised through a gazette notification which was not available presently.

Gazette notification?
At this the Commission said that despite the fact that the RTI application had been made in January 2011, this important gazette notification had not yet been procured by the MCI, which claimed it would request the Central Government to send it the same but was not in a position to commit when this could be sent to Dr. Thind.

Source: The Hindu, September 11, 2011