The Union Cabinet on Wednesday, September 24, gave its nod to the third phase of a centrally sponsored scheme that will add 5,023 MBBS seats and 5,000 postgraduate seats in government medical colleges and institutes over the next three years.

The expansion is estimated to cost Rs 15,034 crore, as per a report by Indian Express.

What happened in earlier phases?

This initiative builds on two earlier phases of the scheme. In the first, support was extended for the creation of 4,977 MBBS seats in 83 colleges with an outlay of Rs 5,972 crore, along with 4,058 PG seats in 72 colleges at a cost of Rs 1,498 crore. The second phase saw the Centre allocate Rs 4,478 crore for 4,000 additional seats across 65 colleges.

The government has launched multiple measures to increase the availability of medical education in India. These include setting up new colleges alongside district hospitals, expanding intake in existing medical institutions, and establishing new All India Institutes of Medical Sciences (AIIMS).

Currently, the country has around 1.2 lakh MBBS seats and 74,306 PG seats. This represents a sharp rise compared to 2014, when the numbers stood at 51,328 and 31,185 respectively.

With more than 20 lakh aspirants sitting for the National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) every year, medicine continues to be one of the most competitive career choices.

Why this expansion?

A major reason behind expanding domestic capacity was to discourage students from going abroad for medical studies, particularly after challenges faced by Indian students in completing their courses in China during the pandemic, in the Philippines due to structural differences in curricula, and in Ukraine because of the ongoing war.

Challenges

However, the rapid expansion has not been without hurdles. One key issue is the shortage of faculty in several colleges. To address this, the National Medical Commission (NMC), the country’s top medical education regulator, introduced mechanisms like Aadhaar-linked biometric attendance and live video surveillance to prevent the problem of ghost faculty.

The government has also eased some rules, such as permitting Diplomate of National Board (DNB) doctors to take up teaching roles and raising the upper age limit for faculty appointments.

Another concern is affordability. A significant portion of the new seats have come up in private colleges, where fees remain prohibitively high.

While the NMC sought to regulate tuition costs in private institutions in 2022, the framework has yet to be fully enforced.