Centre is planning to give academic incentives to medical graduates who serve in villages before opting for post-graduate courses.The Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad said at a function in the outskirts od Delhi,Gurgoan yesterday that Medical graduates who serve in rural areas will be given additional marks.This he said will help them while applying for post-graduate courses. He added that Fifty percent seats in the post graduate diploma courses will be reserved for students who serve in rural areas for three consecutive years. The announcement comes at a time when the government is formulating a separate course for training doctors for rural areas. A three-year bachelor of rural medicine and surgery course proposed by the ministry aims at giving basic health training to doctors who will have a licence to serve only in rural areas.<br/>Spelling out government's initiatives for increasing the number of doctors in the country, Mr. Azad said that the number of seats in medical colleges will also be increased. The government has approved an additional 3,700 MBBS seats in government medical colleges, besides setting in motion a process to increase the number of MBBS graduates within the next five years.<br/>Talking about the number of medical colleges in the country,the Health Minister said new colleges will be established in states which have been backward in this area. The government plans to set up six new medical colleges and 270 nursing schools in next three to four years.