With the growing population in India, the demand and need for qualified and professional doctors are on a steady rise. While there are many good medical colleges present in India where aspiring doctors undertake their studies, many deserving students are unable to get a chance to undergo required training.

In order to meet the shortfall, the intake capacity in undergraduate medical courses has been increased by almost 29,000+ seats in the last six years.

Now, as per the latest information from the Ministry of Health, Government of India, it is now implementing a central government sponsored scheme (CSS) wherein 10,000 more seats will be added for the MBBS courses across 539 government medical colleges.

Moreover, there are plans from the government to set up 26 new medical colleges across the country. These new medical colleges will be attached to some existing district hospitals across states like Uttar Pradesh, Jammu and Kashmir, Karnataka, Ladakh, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan.

Moreover, under the CSS, the government plans on setting up 75 more medical colleges across the country by the year 2022-23.

This information was shared by Mr Ashwini Kumar Choubey, who is the Minister of State, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, in reply to the question asked by MP GS Basavaraj. Another pertinent question that was put up to the minister was regarding the number of candidates who have qualified the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam.

It is an examination that enables the individuals who have a foreign medical degree, practice in India. In reply, the minister informed that the National Board of Examination organises the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam every year, during the last 4 years, out of the 61,000+ students who appeared for the exam 8,764 have been declared as qualified.

This revelation led to another series of questions regarding the reason behind such poor performance of students in the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam.

In reply to this question the minister was quoted as “The medical institutions / Universities of foreign countries admit Indian students without proper assessment or screening of the student’s academic ability to cope up with the medical education with the result that many students fail to qualify the FMGE.”

A large number of Indian students go to foreign countries for undertaking different courses in medical sciences. The most popular options being China, the Russian Federation, and Ukraine.

Though, the number of students who are able to qualify the Foreign Medical Graduate Exam, the eligibility test to practice medicine in India for foreign graduates, is less than 15%.

For the students who have completed the undergraduate medical degree program from India, a common exit examination called NEXT during the final year of the MBBS program.

This exam is conducted to allow the candidates to practice medicine and also gain admission into Post Graduate medical courses.