29,080 PG medical seats increased since 2020: MoS Health

New Delhi: A total of 29,080 postgraduate medical seats have been added across medical colleges from the Academic Year 2020-21 to 2025-26, the Union Health Minister Anupriya Patel informed the Lok Sabha.

In a written reply, Minister Patel said that, as per information provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC), there has been a steady rise in the PG seats over the past six years.

According to the data shared, 4,983 PG seats were added in 2020–21 and 4,705 PG seats in 2021–22. In 2022–23, 2,874 PG seats were increased. This was followed by 4,713 PG seats in 2023–24, 4,186 PG seats in 2024–25, and 7,619 new PG seats in 2025–26.

The Minister shared the data in response to parliamentary questions regarding the year-wise addition of MD/MS seats, their distribution between government and private colleges, their impact on the doctor-population ratio, especially in states like Uttar Pradesh and whether the increase in domestic medical seats helped reduce students’ dependence on studying medicine abroad and what evidence supports this trend in the country.

Patel said, "The expansion of medical seats reduces the gap in the healthcare workforce, particularly in underserved region and has a direct bearing on the doctor-population ratio across States, including Uttar Pradesh. The growing number of medical seats, coupled with improvements in infrastructure and faculty, has made domestic institutions more accessible to Indian students."

Highlighting quality measures, she stated that, "NMC, as an apex regulatory body entrusted with the responsibility of maintaining the quality of medical education has notified various Regulations namely Minimum Standards Requirement (MSR), Graduate Medical Education Regulations (GMER), 2023, Maintenance of Standards of Medical Education Regulations, 2023 (MSMER-2023) and Competency-Based Medical Education (CBME) Curriculum Guidelines 2024 to ensure the adherence to prescribed standards in medical education. These regulations are designed to uphold the integrity and quality of medical education and training across the country."

Details of the number of PG seats from academic year 2020-21 to 2025-26:

Apart from this, the Minister informed that the central government has also approved 10,023 additional medical seats under Centrally Sponsored Schemes in government medical colleges. These seats will be added from the financial year 2025–26 to 2028–29.

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