The rapid rate of development in science and technology in recent years, particularly, in mass communications has posed a great challenge to the Indian society. Welfare of the society can no longer be dependent on the totally inadequate and ill-defined "philanthropy" of charitable institutions and condescending moneyed men. Political changes must be accompanied with radical social changes, if social unrest is to be avoided. This requires a comprehensive social plan, of which medical and public health services form an important component. Medical social planning calls for a total change in the concepts in the teaching, research, and practice in the medical sciences. In the teaching of social medicine, more emphasis must be laid on the adequate utilisation of the already available knowledge for the good of the entire society. The main trend in medical research must be to get such basic knowledge about social medicine. Medical personnel inculcated with such a knowledge about social medicine will, in turn, determine the pattern of medical practice. Further, the administration in medical and public health services must get tuned to this social bias so as to extend the maximum aid to the newly oriented medical and para-medical personnel working in the various health services.