Apollo Hospitals has approached Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh state governments seeking permission to set up four medical colleges in these states. The company wants education to evolve as another business vertical. Apollo proposes to have medical colleges in Chennai, Madurai, Hyderabad and Chittoor. “We have land in all these places. The hospital has sought clearance from the respective state governments. Once we get the no objection certificate from them and then the approval of the Medical Council of India, we will be able to start construction in the sites,” Preetha Reddy, MD of Apollo Hospitals told FC. Apollo may rope in Malaysian sovereign fund Khazanah Nasional, which holds 70 per cent stake in International Medical University of Malaysia. “Some of the medical universities in the UK and the US too are quite interested in our education venture. We are in talks with them and once we get the necessary government nod, we will finalise on the collaborations. We seek to build education as a business vertical and we might also look at several models in developing the vertical,” she said. Medical Council of India recently had lifted its bar on corporate hospital chains directly foraying into medical education. source: www.mydigitalfc.com