India Hits 1.37 Lakh MBBS Seats as NMC Clears 41 New Medical Colleges and 10,650 Admissions for Session 2025-26

For the academic year 2025-26, the NMC has approved 10,650 MBBS seats and 41 new medical colleges, increasing the national total to 816. The initiative supports Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s plan to expand medical education with 75,000 new seats over five years. NMC received a total of 170 applications for expansion of undergraduate seats, of which 41 were from the government and 129 from private institutions. After these approvals, the number of MBBS seats in the country will increase to 1,37,600, which also includes seats in INI institutions.

The National Medical Commission had also accepted more than 3,500 postgraduate applications, bringing the overall PG capacity to 67,000. This year, we reported a total of 15,000 seats added to both UG and PG programmes. During his speech on Independence Day, the Prime Minister of India expressed that it’s unfortunate that Indian students go abroad to study medicine. To address this, he stated that adding 75,000 new medical seats to institutions within the nation, if implemented, would not only increase the number of graduate and specialist doctors but also help establish new specialties within government institutions, while improving health coverage in underprivileged areas. Over the last decade, India has generated 127% or 69,352 new MBBS seats and 143% or 43,041 new PG seats.

Major Highlights: Medical Education Expansion in Numbers