Which states get more seats?

Some of the biggest beneficiaries this year include:

• 
  Karnataka: 1,300 new seats, including around 1,150 in private colleges
• 
  Tamil Nadu: 950 new seats
• 
  Uttar Pradesh: 800 new seats
• 
  Rajasthan: Around 700 new seats
• 
  Telangana: More than 800 new seats

Karnataka’s private medical colleges alone accounted for one of the largest additions this year, reinforcing the state’s position as one of India’s leading centres for medical education.

Why are more seats being added?

Will this reduce the number of students going abroad?

Every year, thousands of Indian students choose to study medicine overseas because they are unable to secure an MBBS seat at home or cannot afford private colleges in India.

The Ministry of External Affairs estimates that nearly 1.25 million Indian students were pursuing higher education abroad as of January 2025. A 2025 NITI Aayog working paper notes that health professions account for 2.8 per cent of outward student mobility, which translates to roughly 30,000 to 35,000 Indian students leaving the country each year to pursue health-related education, including medicine.

Popular destinations for Indian students include Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Nepal, and the Philippines, where tuition fees are often significantly lower than those charged by private medical colleges in India.

While countries such as the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and Australia also attract Indian medical aspirants, they are far less common destinations because of their higher tuition costs, stricter admission requirements, and limited availability of undergraduate medical programmes for international students.

Even with more MBBS seats available, affordability remains a key concern. Many of the newly approved seats are in private colleges, where fees can run into tens of lakhs of rupees, making overseas education a financially attractive option for many families.

Is India still short of doctors?

According to the government, India’s doctor-population ratio stands at around 1:811 when registered allopathic doctors and AYUSH practitioners are taken into account, placing the country in a relatively strong position on the national metric.

The World Health Organization recommends a minimum doctor-population ratio of 1:1,000.

However, the national figure does not reflect the uneven distribution of doctors across the country. Many rural and remote districts continue to face shortages, while specialists remain concentrated in urban centres. Adding more MBBS seats is therefore only part of the solution.

More seats alone will not solve the problem

While the expansion will create opportunities for more aspiring doctors, increasing MBBS seats is only one part of strengthening India’s medical education system. As the number of students rises, medical colleges will also need adequate faculty, teaching hospitals, infrastructure, and sufficient clinical exposure to maintain the quality of training.

Moreover, competition for postgraduate medical seats remains intense, leaving many graduates to spend years preparing for entrance examinations before they can pursue a specialisation.

Unless affordable education, quality training, postgraduate opportunities, and equitable deployment of doctors improve alongside seat expansion, India may continue to face shortages where they matter most, despite producing more medical graduates than before.