Health Ministry has adapted measures to ensure that Indian Doctors, who go abroad to pursue their education in the US, to return back to their nation by suspending the issue of “no obligation to return”, certificates which would permit the students to stay back in US.

Over 3000 medical students have moved from India to US for education but have not returned. For every 2000 thousand people in the nation there is only one doctor while in the US there is one for every 469 patients.

The 'no obligation to return to India' (NORI) certificate is a required document from the health ministry which should be possessed by a doctor who had 9 years of medical education to settle back in the US. The students also are issued a “statement of need” by the health ministry on the rules of the US to ensure that the students are allowed to go and study medicine but they would return back to serve the nation.

Joint secretary in the health ministry S K Rao said only 30% of those who go to the US return to work. "This year, we haven't issued a single NORI certificate," he said.

(AW-Anil)