Replying to a question by DMK Rajya Sabha MP Kanimozhi NVN Somu on Tuesday, December 20, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Bharati Pravin Pawar, informed the Parliament that relaxation has been made in setting up medical colleges and other health infrastructure to strengthen the health sector in India.

The MP had asked the minister whether the Union Government took adequate measures to increase medical colleges in the country to meet the standards as recommended by the World Health Organisation (WHO), as stated in a report by The New Indian Express. Replying, the Union Minister said, "As informed by National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 13,08,009 allopathic doctors registered with State Medical Councils and NMC as of June 2022. Assuming 80 percent availability of registered allopathic doctors and 5.65 lakh AYUSH doctors, the doctor-population ratio in India is 1:834 against WHO norms of 1:1000."

The Union Minister added that various measures and steps have been taken to augment medical education facilities and improve medical standards in the country — Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for establishing new medical colleges by upgrading district/referral hospitals, under which, 157 new medical colleges have been approved and CSS for strengthening/upgrading existing state government/union government medical colleges to increase MBBS and PG seats. Norms for establishing new medical colleges in terms of faculty and staff requirements, beds and other infrastructure had also been relaxed, the Union Minister said.