Nurses trained in select medical institutes in India could soon be allowed to practice their skills in Singapore without any additional training in that country.

The All India Institute of Medical Sciences, CMC Vellore, Nursing College in Manipal and the College of Nursing in Thiruvananthapuram are some of the institutes which the Singapore Government has agreed to include in the mutual recognition agreement (MRA) to be signed with India, a Government official told BusinessLine .

“We hope to sign our first MRA in the area of nursing with Singapore soon. Singapore too has drawn its list of institutes that it wants India to recognise,” the official said. An MRA is an agreement between two parties to recognise degrees or diplomas accorded by certain recognised institutes in the other country and allow professionals who acquired education and training from those institutes to practice in their own country.

Areas of cooperation India and Singapore had agreed to get into MRAs in at least five areas to allow smooth movement of professionals when the two had signed a Comprehensive Economic Partnership Agreement (CEPA) way back in 2005. These included nurses, doctors, dentists, architects and chartered accountants. But, not one has been signed till date. “We can’t lay the whole blame on Singapore. Professional groups here too are wary of opening up, fearing the unknown. Although we are very strong in services, it takes a lot to persuade our service providers to agree to free movement and convince them that we would be the net gainers,” the official added. While the Commerce Ministry has managed to convince the nursing fraternity to get into an MRA with Singapore after years of persuasion, efforts are still on to get things moving for other professions. “We don’t think anything is going to happen in the other areas soon, but efforts are on,” the official said.

Related Topics