The Centre has informed Parliament that India currently has 86,360 postgraduate (PG) medical seats across government and private medical institutions for the academic year 2026-27. It has also approved an increase of 5,000 additional PG seats over the next four years to meet the growing demand for specialist doctors.
Responding to a starred question in the Lok Sabha on August 7, Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said that the figures have been provided by the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS).
According to the statistics shared in Parliament, Karnataka has recorded the highest number of postgraduate medical seats with 10,092 seats, followed by Maharashtra (9,216), Tamil Nadu (8,023), Uttar Pradesh (7,437), and Telangana (5,248).
At the same time, among government institutions, Maharashtra (4,277) has the highest number of PG seats, while Karnataka (7,287) leads among private medical colleges.
Centre Approves 5,000 Additional PG Seats
To increase the availability of specialist doctors, the government has approved Phase III of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme (CSS) for strengthening and upgrading existing State Government and Central Government medical colleges, standalone postgraduate institutes, and government hospitals.
Under the scheme, 5,000 new PG medical seats will be added between 2025-26 and 2028-29. The cost ceiling has also been enhanced to ₹1.50 crore per seat.
How Will PG Seats Increase?
The Health Ministry said medical colleges can submit their proposals to start new PG courses or increase seats in existing courses under the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations (PGMER), 2023, and the Post Graduate Minimum Standards Requirement, 2024.
The proposals are approved by the NMC after assessing faculty strength, infrastructure, clinical material, and other prescribed requirements.
At the same time, NBEMS has undertaken measures to expand postgraduate medical education by easing accreditation norms without compromising the quality of teaching and training, introducing new PG programmes, encouraging district hospitals to seek accreditation, and collaborating with State governments, Public Sector Undertakings (PSUs), and Employees’ State Insurance Corporation (ESIC) hospitals for the commencement of NBEMS courses across hospitals under their administrative control.
However, the government has also clarified that NBEMS has no proposal under consideration to convert all diploma seats into full-fledged PG medical degree (DNB) seats.
What About PG Medical Fees?
The Centre said that the regulation of fees for postgraduate medical courses in private medical colleges falls under the jurisdiction of the respective State and Union Territory governments and differs from state to state.