With 83,275 MBBS, 42,720 PG seats 558 Medical Colleges Operative in India: Health Minister

Among these institutes, 289 medical colleges are controlled by the government, whereas a total number of 269 medical colleges belong to the private sector.

Further providing details regarding the upcoming medical colleges, the Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare recently informed the Parliament that under the Centrally sponsored scheme for "Establishment of new medical colleges attached with existing district/referral hospitals", 157 new medical colleges approved in three phases.

"Funds to the tune of Rs.7541.1 crores, Rs. 3675 crores and Rs. 5519.11 crores have been released under Phase – I, II and III respectively," added the Minister.

This information comes in response to a series of questions in Lok Sabha, related to the details of medical colleges that are functional and upcoming across the country along with the amount of funds allocated and released for them. The questions further sought to know about the State/UT wise details of the total number of MBBS and PG medical seats across the country.

Total Medical Colleges in India

"As informed by the National Medical Commission (NMC), there are 558 Medical Colleges in the country with an intake capacity of 83275 MBBS seats and 42720 PG seats (MD/ MS /DM /M.Ch /Diploma)," the Minister informed in response.

As per the data provided by the Minister, in respect of the number of medical colleges, Karnataka comes at the first position as the State has a total number of 60 medical colleges with 19 belonging to Government sector and 41 to private.

Uttar Pradesh and Maharashtra have a total number of 57 medical colleges. Among these, 26 are Government medical colleges and 31 private ones.

Apart from these, Tamil Nadu has a total number of 52 medical colleges, Telangana 34, Andhra Pradesh, Gujarat, and Kerala each has 31 medical colleges, West Bengal 26, Rajasthan 24, Madhya Pradesh 23, Bihar 17, Orissa and Haryana each has 12 medical colleges, Punjab, Jammu & Kashmir, Delhi, Chhattisgarh each has 10 medical colleges, Pondicherry has 9 medical colleges, Assam, Jharkhand and Himachal Pradesh have 8 medical colleges each, and Uttarakhand has a total number of 6 medical colleges. The numbers of medical colleges are really low in the other states like Manipur and Tripura with 2 medical colleges in each state. On the other hand, States including A & N Islands, Arunachal Pradesh, Chandigarh, D & N Haveli, Goa, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim has only 1 medical colleges each. Nagaland does not have any medical college in the State at present.

MBBS seats in India

In terms of MBBS medical seats as well, Karnataka tops the place with offering a total number of 9345 medical students for pursuing medical education. Maharashtra comes at second with a total number of 9000 MBBS seats.

Other states including Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Gujarat, Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Rajasthan, Kerala, West Bengal, Madhya Pradesh, Orissa, Haryana, Pondicherry, Punjab, Delhi, Chhattisgarh, Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Himachal Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Jharkhand, Manipur, Tripura, Goa, Chandigarh, D & N Haveli, A & N islands, Mizoram, Sikkim, Meghalaya, Arunachal Pradesh have 8000, 7428, 5700, 5240, 5200,4200, 4105, 4000, 3585, 1950, 1660, 1530, 1425, 1422, 1345, 1135, 1050, 920, 825, 780, 225, 225, 180,150, 150, 100, 100, 50, 50, 50 MBBS seats respectively.

Among the total number of 83275 MBBS seats available in India, 43435 belong to Government medical colleges, and 39840 belong to Private medical institutes.

Apart from Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh has a total number of 2371 PG medical seats, Assam 715, Bihar 856, Chandigarh, 557, Chhattisgarh 354, Delhi 2730, Goa 119, Gujarat 2127, Haryana 554, Himachal Pradesh 318, Jammu & Kashmir 568, Jharkhand 227, Kerala 1587, Madhya Pradesh 1548, Maharashtra 4922, Manipur 210, Meghalaya 35, Orissa 974, Pondicherry has 817, Punjab 734, Rajasthan 2094, Sikkim 22, Tamil Nadu 4255, Telangana 2237, Tripura 84, Uttar Pradesh 2836, Uttarakhand 1732, and West Bengal has 1758 PG medical seats.

Among these, all the PG medical seats in MD and MS in Sikkim belong to Private institutes as none of the Government medical colleges in the State offer post-graduate medical education.

		Government						Private						Total (Govt. and Pvt.)
Sl. No.	State/UT	MD	MS	MCH	DM	Dip.	Total	MD	MS	MCH	DM	Dip.	Total	MD	MS	MCH	DM	Dip.	Total
1	Andhra Pradesh	616	353	39	42	15	1065	797	444	24	30	11	1306	1413	797	63	72	26	2371
2	Assam	425	238	23	25	4	715	0	0	0	0	0	0	425	238	23	25	4	715
3	Bihar	345	238	19	12	24	638	137	81	0	0	0	218	482	319	19	12	24	856
4	Chandigarh	301	155	52	49	0	557	0	0	0	0	0	0	301	155	52	49	0	557
5	Chhattisgarh	201	98	19	10	0	328	23	3	0	0	0	26	224	101	19	10	0	354
6	Delhi	1264	631	223	446	117	2681	30	19	0	0	0	49	1294	650	223	446	117	2730
7	Goa	89	28	2	0	0	119	0	0	0	0	0	0	89	28	2	0	0	119
8	Gujarat	1022	555	58	47	28	1710	289	120	3	2	3	417	1311	675	61	49	31	2127
9	Haryana	209	75	8	2	0	294	171	81	4	4	0	260	380	156	12	6	0	554
10	Himachal Pradesh	125	81	3	4	13	226	63	29	0	0	0	92	188	110	3	4	13	318
11	Jammu & Kashmir	274	198	17	18	14	521	30	17	0	0	0	47	304	215	17	18	14	568
12	Jharkhand	135	63	7	2	20	227	0	0	0	0	0	0	135	63	7	2	20	227
13	Karnataka	758	399	73	84	14	1328	2595	1208	103	117	28	4051	3353	1607	176	201	42	5379
14	Kerala	559	290	75	80	11	1015	340	144	26	50	12	572	899	434	101	130	23	1587
15	Madhya Pradesh	612	327	28	15	8	990	350	193	8	7	0	558	962	520	36	22	8	1548
16	Maharashtra	1691	797	135	102	61	2786	1287	774	34	36	5	2136	2978	1571	169	138	66	4922
17	Manipur	119	80	3	2	6	210	0	0	0	0	0	0	119	80	3	2	6	210
18	Meghalaya	23	10	0	2	0	35	0	0	0	0	0	0	23	10	0	2	0	35
19	Orissa	382	192	41	44	3	662	176	92	12	32	0	312	558	284	53	76	3	974
20	Pondicherry	146	73	20	32	19	290	343	178	5	1	0	527	489	251	25	33	19	817
21	Punjab	228	144	2	0	22	396	211	98	11	18	0	338	439	242	13	18	22	734
22	Rajasthan	969	427	96	96	0	1588	300	144	30	32	0	506	1269	571	126	128	0	2094
23	Sikkim	0	0	0	0	0	0	18	4	0	0	0	22	18	4	0	0	0	22
24	Tamil Nadu	1093	743	189	180	176	2381	1067	576	89	136	6	1874	2160	1319	278	316	182	4255
25	Telangana	606	284	68	78	17	1053	764	396	12	8	4	1184	1370	680	80	86	21	2237
26	Tripura	52	27	0	0	0	79	4	1	0	0	0	5	56	28	0	0	0	84
27	Uttar Pradesh	885	497	104	122	69	1677	786	365	0	0	8	1159	1671	862	104	122	77	2836
28	Uttarakhand	612	241	285	282	92	1512	137	70	5	2	6	220	749	311	290	284	98	1732
29	West Bengal	855	486	83	114	90	1628	83	31	0	0	16	130	938	517	83	114	106	1758
	Total	14596	7730	1672	1890	823	26711	10001	5068	366	475	99	16009	24597	12798	2038	2365	922	42720

"The National Medical Commission (NMC) has also framed Minimum Requirement Regulations, 2020 which provide for minimum standards viz. requirement of land, infrastructure, faculty, residents, equipments for the medical colleges. The applicant medical college must fulfil these requirements in order to obtain permission from the NMC as mandated under the NMC Act, 2019. The permission is granted only after physical verification of the infrastructure, human resources and other facilities," further mentioned the Minister adding that during the last academic session 2020-21, no medical college has been derecognized.

Steps taken by the government to increase the number of medical seats, institutes 

Further informing the Lok Sabha about the steps have been taken by the Government to increase the number of seats of doctors/ nurses in medical colleges/universities/institutes/ hospitals in the country, the Minister of State, MOHFW informed that the Government has taken the following steps in this regard:

"i) Centrally Sponsored Scheme for establishment of new medical college by upgrading district hospital in underserved districts of the country.

ii) Centrally Sponsored Scheme for Strengthening/ upgradation of existing State Government/Central Government Medical Colleges to increase MBBS and PG seats.

iii) Viability Gap Funding Scheme for establishment of medical colleges in Public-Private Partnership mode.

iv) A Consortium (a group of 2 or upto 4 private organizations) has been allowed to establish a medical college.

v) Relaxation in the norms for setting up of Medical College in terms of requirement for faculty, staff, bed strength and other infrastructure.

vi) Enhancement of maximum intake capacity at MBBS level from 150 to 250.

vii) DNB qualification has been recognized for appointment as faculty to take care of shortage of faculty.

viii) Enhancement of age limit for appointment/ extension/ re-employment against posts of teachers/dean/principal/ director in medical colleges upto 70 years.

ix) The ratio of teachers to students has been rationalized to increase the number of postgraduate medical seats in the country.

x) By amending the regulations, it has been made mandatory for all medical colleges to start PG courses within 3 years from the date of their MBBS recognition /continuation of recognition.

xi) Provision has been made in the Regulations to offer less number of seats to the applicant medical college, in case, it falls short of minimum prescribed requirements of applied intake to avoid wastage of human resources.

xii) Under the Central Sector Scheme - Development of Nursing Services, financial assistance to the tune of Rs. 7 crore for each institution is provided to schools of nursing to be upgraded to college of nursing.

xiii) The requirement of land to construct building for School/College of Nursing and Hostel has been relaxed. xiv) The requirement of a 100 beded parent hospital has been relaxed for hilly and tribal areas for School/College of Nursing and Hostel.

xv) The student teacher ratio for M.Sc(N) programme has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:10. xvi) Student patient ratio for Nursing Institutions has been relaxed from 1:5 to 1:3.

xvii) Distance from Nursing School to hospital has been relaxed from 15 km to 30 km. However, for hilly and tribal areas the maximum distance is 50 km. Super speciality hospital can start M.Sc.(N) without having undergraduate programme."