Irrational use of medicines is a major problem worldwide. It is a major cause for increased healthcare costs due to loss of intended therapeutic benefit, development of drug resistance and adverse drug reactions. Previously, many drug utilization studies carried out in various medical centers in India have highlighted the practice of irrational use of medicine. In general, lack of awareness, time, and incentives in conjunction with unavailability of standard treatment guidelines, and lack of access to essential medicines and low level of information about medicines within the institutional set-up have been implicated for irrational prescribing behaviour. However, the relevance of these factors in promoting irrational use of medicines has not been systematically explored in India. Our study was undertaken to survey the physicians’ knowledge, attitude, and perceptions towards rational prescribing and use of essential medicines in the departments of Medicine, Pediatrics and Surgery. A composite, prevalidated questionnaire, based on survey instrument of Theodorou et al (2009) and WHO drug use indicators was used for data collection. Respondents’ from the three departments included physicians with varying designations (Non-PG junior residents, PG-junior residents, senior residents and faculty members) qualifications, and experience and there was considerable variation in the responses obtained in the survey. Specific educational and administrative measures would be useful in promoting rational use of medicines amongst physicians in the tertiary set-up. Submitted by Sumit kumar Ridhima kaul Guided by Dr. C D Tripathi Dr. Biswa Mohan.