high-level panel to recast UGC, AICTE

• The Prime Minister's Office (PMO) has directed the high-level committee, headed by Niti Aayog Vice Chairman Arvind Panagariya, to prepare a road map for reforming the two regulatory bodies in the field of education — the University Grants Commission (UGC) and the All India Council for Technical Education (AICTE) — as well as the board looking after Homeopathy and Ayurvedic education in the country.
• Other members of the panel are P.K. Mishra, Amitabh Kant and Bhahanu Pratap Sharma.

• The panel is already set to recommend the scrapping of the Medical Council of India (MCI) and replacing it with the National Medical Commission (NMC).
• Four Boards will be set up under the Commission:

1. Under Graduate Medical Board, 
2. Post Graduate Medical Board, 
3. Accreditation and Assessment Board 
4. A board for registration of medical colleges as well monitoring of the ethics in the profession.

• The NMC will become the main regulatory body and will take over all roles and responsibilities of the MCI.
• The proposed Commission will have 19-20 members, comprising eminent doctors and experts from related fields, who will be selected by a government-appointed search committee, rather than elected as is the case in the MCI.