IISc Bengaluru will start PG medical school in 2022: Why the govt wanted India's best science college to get med edge

Now, students can pursue medical science from the Indian Institute of Science, Bengaluru (IISc) which is known for its research in all streams of engineering and other subjects related to science. On October 6, Govindan Rangarajan, Director, IISc announced that they would start offering medical courses from the next academic year. Speaking at the Convocation, he said, "IISc was started in 1909 with a chemistry department followed by electrical technology and organic chemistry departments. While we are called Indian Institute of Science, we have ensured that we have science and engineering equally represented as well as given equal importance. At the same time, a lot of interdisciplinary departments have come up. Next year, we are planning to start a postgraduate medical school on campus."

In May 2021, Ramesh Pokhriyal, Former Minister of Education held a meeting with the heads of the IISc, IITs, IIITs and a few more reputed public institutions. He had announced that IISc Bengaluru and IIT Kharagpur would start medical science courses. Similarly, IISc is planning to venture into the new area of quantum computing which is the future of technology just like Artificial Intelligence, Cyber Security, Data Science and so on.  This is part of many proposals floated under the National Education Policy which demands that institutions must become interdisciplinary. 

Pic: Edexlive/IISc website

It must be noted that IISc students and faculty have come up with various technologies during the COVID-19 pandemic. These technologies can be implemented across the country. The list of their research work includes Rapid identification of Covid-19 biomarkers in blood plasma using Raman spectroscopy and artificial intelligence, Covid WATCH: rapid monitoring tool for regions with low smartphone penetration, A recombinant subunit vaccine for SARS-CoV-2, Antimicrobial Surface Coatings with Nanofibers, Plasma sterilisation and disinfection and so on. You can actually find all the research work listed on covid19.iisc.ac.in.

The director added, "We are going to start the Kotak-IISc AI-ML Centre in a new building in our IISc campus. The Centre will focus on financial technology solutions through AI, ML and innovative research."