What happened: expansion in medical education capacity
The Government of India, through the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, reported a large expansion in medical education infrastructure. PIB states that the expansion has increased the number of medical colleges and also increased the number of MBBS (undergraduate medical) seats and PG (postgraduate medical) seats.
PIB-reported changes (pre-2014 to present):
0 Medical colleges: 387 to 846 (increase of 118.6%). 0 MBBS seats: 51,348 to 1,39,864 (increase of 172.4%). 0 PG seats: 31,185 to 86,360 (increase of 176.9%). These capacity changes are linked to government-supported creation of new colleges, upgradation of existing colleges, and growth of tertiary-care education infrastructure.
Background and earlier position: how capacity has been built
Medical education capacity building in India typically involves two approaches: (1) adding new medical colleges and increasing seat intake, and (2) upgrading existing government or aided medical colleges and hospitals so that undergraduate (MBBS) and postgraduate (PG) teaching capacity increases. In parallel, tertiary medical education capacity is expanded through flagship institutions and super-specialty infrastructure.
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