India to See 75,000 New Medical Seats by 2029, Says PM Modi in Independence Day Speech

PM Modi, in his Independence Day speech, announced a major expansion in India's medical education system. He announced the addition of 75,000 new medical seats by 2029 to improve access to medical education across the country.

During his 78th Independence Day speech from the Red Fort, Modi pointed out that many middle-class families are still sending their children abroad for medical education. He mentioned that these students are spending significant amounts, often "lakhs and crores," on their studies overseas.

"In the last 10 years we have increased the medical seats to nearly 1 lakh," Modi said.

"Around 25,000 youths every year go abroad for medical education and they go to such countries, I get surprised when I hear about them.

"So we have decided, 75,000 new seats will be created in the medical line in the next five years," Modi stated.

India currently has 704 medical colleges as of 2023-24. In the last five years, 225 medical colleges have been added.

As per a study by the Centre for Social Economic Progress, Telangana added 31 medical colleges, followed by Tamil Nadu with 25 and Uttar Pradesh with 21.

Kerala, which has the best primary healthcare in the country, has 33 medical colleges.

Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, and Telangana hold 47 per cent of the medical colleges in the country, the study shows.

The number of medical seats has also increased in the last five years by 60.6 per cent. Telangana has contributed to this share with 4890 seats, Tamil Nadu with 4750, Maharashtra with 3475 seats etc. This is primarily due to the increase in government medical colleges and the relaxation of norms with the setting up of medical colleges.

Post-graduate seats doubled from 25,850 in 2015-16 to 52,935 in 2023-24.