# IIT Madras plans medical school with MBBS, MD degrees 2026-08-20T16:16:13+00:00 | Governance | Indian Opinion Desk Corroboration: 2 independent outlets IIT Madras plans to open a School of Medical Sciences and award its own medical degrees, including MBBS, MD and PhD, Director V. Kamakoti told India Today in an exclusive interview. The institute's Department of Medical Sciences and Technology, established in 2023, currently offers a BS in Medical Sciences and Engineering and a PhD programme, producing medical technologists and physician-scientists, not practising doctors. The proposed school would go a step further to train clinicians. However, Times Now reports that the institute has clarified necessary regulatory approvals from the National Medical Commission and infrastructure including a teaching hospital are still pending. IIT Kharagpur, which built its own hospital, provides a precedent: it won approval for an MD course while its MBBS plan awaits infrastructure. Kamakoti argues any technology institution must start a medical school for India to reduce dependence on imported medical equipment, a need exposed by the pandemic. The next concrete step: IIT Madras must secure NMC approval and build or partner with a teaching hospital before it can admit its first medical students. ## Indian Opinion Analysis India Today's exclusive interview with Director Kamakoti foregrounds the vision and rationale, leading with his call for tech institutes to run medical schools and citing the pandemic. Times Now reports the same story as an institute statement, highlighting the regulatory hurdles and pending approvals. India Today omits the word 'exploring' used by Times Now, making the plan sound more definitive. The measured middle ground: IIT Madras is exploring a medical school with ambition and some existing infrastructure, but faces the same long regulatory and infrastructure road as IIT Kharagpur before it can award clinical degrees. Watch for whether the institute announces a timeline for a teaching hospital. ## Coverage Coverage: 2 sources, 2 neutral - indiatoday.in (neutral report) Leads with director's vision and rationale, treats plan as definite announcement - timesnownews.com (neutral report) Leads with institute tweet and pending approvals, treats plan as exploration This story was synthesised by AI from the 2 sources linked above. Updated: this story now draws on 2 sources. Last updated 2026-08-21T11:19:01+00:00. Tags: Department of Medical Sciences and Technology, IIT Madras, IIT-Kharagpur, National Medical Commission, V. Kamakoti Canonical: https://indianopinion.org/iit-madras-to-offer-mbbs-md-degrees-says-director/ License: Summary and commentary (c) Indian Opinion, reusable with attribution. Facts belong to the linked sources. Cite: https://indianopinion.org/iit-madras-to-offer-mbbs-md-degrees-says-director/#story-in-brief How this brief was made: an AI model read the reports linked above and wrote this summary and analysis, which were published automatically. Published briefs are sampled every hour by an automated quality check; the editor verifies its findings and approves corrections, and corrected briefs carry a dated correction line. Stance labels are editorial classifications of how each outlet framed this story, assigned by the same model, not ratings of the outlets. We do no original reporting. Methodology: https://indianopinion.org/ai-use-policy/