NEW DELHI, June 19 -- The government plans to introduce a national award to honour and celebrate the clinical excellence of doctors across specialties, filling a major recognition gap within India's medical fraternity, according to two officials familiar with the matter.

The proposed award, modeled on the lines of the historic National Florence Nightingale Award for nursing professionals, will be of immense significance for 1.3 million medical practitioners registered with the National Medical Commission (NMC).

Indian doctors have been without a centralized, top-tier government accolade since 2022, when the NMC discontinued the iconic Dr. B.C. Roy National Award-previously the highest honour achievable by a doctor in India-as part of a ...