Context: Recently, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has replaced the Medical Council of India (MCI), as per the gazette notification issued by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
Key Points
Four autonomous boards are created along with NMC to help the commission in its day to day functioning. They are

• UG Medical Education Board
• PG Medical Education Board
• Medical Assessment and Rating Board
• Ethics and Medical Registration Board

The key functions of the NMC will be

• Further streamlining regulations
• Rating of institutions
• HR assessment
• Focus on research
• Prepare guidelines for fee regulation by private medical colleges
• Developing standards for Community Health Providers to serve in primary healthcare with limited practicing licence

Besides, they will also work on modalities of the common final year exam after MBBS (NEXT- National Exit Test) to serve for both registration and PG entrance
About the National Medical Commission

• The Centre has notified the 33-member NMC, which will be chaired for three years by Suresh Chandra Sharma.
• Apart from the Chairman, the NMC will consist of 10 ex-officio members and 22 part-time members appointed by the Central government.

Functions of NMC

• laying down policies for regulating medical institutions and medical professionals.
• assessing the requirements of human resources and infrastructure in healthcare.
• ensuring compliance by the State Medical Councils with the regulations made under the Bill.
• framing guidelines for determination of fee for up to 50% of the seats in the private medical institutions.

Significance

• This historic reform will steer medical education towards a transparent, qualitative and accountable system.
• The basic change that has happened is that the Regulator is now selected on merits, as opposed to an elected Regulator.
• Men and women with impeccable integrity, professionalism, experience and stature have been placed at the helm to steer the medical education reforms further.