It’s good news for medical students in the country. With the addition of 14,863 more seats in he year 2019 for the medical course, the Medical Council of India (MCI) has created a record of sorts in its 63 years of history. At the start of 2020 the total medical seats all over India stands at 75,543 in 529 medical colleges which include 269 government colleges and 260 private colleges.

Sources in the health ministry has confirmed that there has been a record addition to the number of postgraduate and super speciality seats in the academic year 2019.

At present 204 medical colleges in India offer postgraduate courses. In 2019, there was an addition of 407 super specialty seats (Doctorate of Medicine and MCH) taking the overall tally from 2,797 in 2018 to 3,204 in 2019.

The growth is attributed mainly to MCI Board of Governors taking control of medical education sector last year, after the government dissolved the MCI. This gave birth to a new medical education regulator called National Medical Commission (NMC). The BOG granted permission 37 new medical colleges for the academic year 2019-2020. The BOG also added 1,720 post graduate seats in 2019 taking the total number of seats up from 30,438 in 2018-2019 to 32,158 in 2019 academic calendar.