The Union government has informed the Rajya Sabha that 43 new medical colleges have been started across India in the 2025-26 academic year.
In a written reply, Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel cited National Medical Commission (NMC) data, stating that approvals were granted in the same academic year for 11,682 MBBS seats and 8,967 postgraduate medical seats.
The minister said the NMC invites online applications every year from medical colleges and institutions for establishing new colleges and for increasing undergraduate and postgraduate seats. Permissions or rejections are issued after inspections and evaluation as per prescribed rules and guidelines.
She also noted that the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare is implementing a special central assistance scheme to set up new medical colleges attached to existing district referral hospitals. Under the scheme, funding is shared between the Centre and states in a 90:10 ratio for North Eastern and special category states and 60:40 for others, with priority for underserved areas and districts without existing government or private medical colleges.
According to the reply, 157 medical colleges have been approved in three phases under this scheme, with a total approved cost of Rs 41,332.41 crore. Of the Centre’s share of Rs 26,715.84 crore, Rs 23,246.10 crore has been released so far.
