Medical colleges to add 10,000 seats in FY26, says Nirmala Sitharaman

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman

As many as 10,000 seats will be will be added in medical colleges and hospitals in the financial year 2025-26, with the aim to take the number to 75,000 over the next five years, finance minister Nirmala Sitharaman said on February 1.

The push for medical education comes a few months after the government extended its flagship health insurance scheme Ayushman Bharat to all citizens above the age of 70 irrespective of their income.

“Our government has added almost 1.1 lakh UG and PG medical education seats in ten years, an increase of 130 percent,” the Budget document said.

The Budget provided Rs 1.29 lakh crore to the education sector, 6.6 percent more than the outlay for the current fiscal.

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India has seen a 102 percent increase in the number of medical colleges — from 387 before 2014 to 780 in 2024, the health ministry said earlier.

Health minister JP Nadda told the Lok Sabha on November 29 that India’s doctor-population ratio of 1:811 was better than the WHO standard of 1:1000.

The number of MBBS seats also surged 130 percent — from 51,348 before 2014 to 1,18,137, the minister citing the latest National Medical Commission (NMC) data had said.

The NMC recently took some measures to improve the availability of teachers by easing some norms for appointment to these positions. With an increase in the number of medical colleges in the country, there have been concerns about the availability of faculty.