In a major policy shift, the National Medical Commission (NMC) has removed the long-standing cap of 150 MBBS seats per medical college, paving the way for institutions to expand their undergraduate intake.
Alongside scrapping the seat limit, the commission has also withdrawn the population-based criterion that linked the number of undergraduate medical seats in a state to its population size — previously fixed at 100 seats per 10 lakh people. This provision had been introduced to address regional disparities in medical education infrastructure but had faced criticism from several states.
The NMC has further revised infrastructure-related guidelines by redefining the permissible distance between a medical college and its attached teaching hospitals. Instead of the earlier requirement based on a 30-minute travel time, the new norms specify a maximum distance of 10 km. For institutions located in northeastern and Himalayan regions, the limit has been relaxed to 15 km, acknowledging geographical challenges.
These rules were originally part of the Undergraduate Medical Education Regulations 2023, introduced less than three years ago to standardise medical education quality and accessibility. The seat cap was intended to prevent overcrowding and ensure adequate clinical exposure for students, while the population-based limit aimed to distribute medical colleges more evenly across regions.
However, the norms faced strong opposition from states such as Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, and Karnataka, along with the union territory of Puducherry. These regions argued that the restrictions unfairly penalised states with well-developed healthcare and education systems. As a result, the NMC had repeatedly deferred the implementation of these provisions.
Meanwhile, the expansion of medical education infrastructure has continued at a rapid pace. The number of medical colleges in India has risen significantly, from 387 in 2014 to over 818 by late 2025. This growth has contributed to a 127 per cent increase in MBBS seats over the same period.
In the 2025–26 academic year alone, the total intake capacity for MBBS programmes increased by 11,682 seats — the highest single-year rise recorded so far — taking the total number of undergraduate medical seats to 1,29,872 nationwide. The central government has also outlined plans to add 75,000 new medical seats over a five-year period starting from 2024.
The latest reforms are expected to further accelerate the expansion of medical education in India, while also offering greater flexibility to institutions in scaling up capacity and improving access to medical training.