SRINAGAR: Jammu and Kashmir has 1,238 post-graduate (PG) medical seats, including 1,175 in government medical institutions and 63 in private colleges, the Union Government informed Parliament on Friday, while announcing an expansion plan to add 5,000 PG seats across the country between 2025-26 and 2028-29.
Replying to a starred question in the Lok Sabha, Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda said India currently has 86,360 PG medical seats, as reported by the National Medical Commission (NMC) and the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS).
The Minister said the Government has approved Phase III of the Centrally Sponsored Scheme for strengthening and upgrading existing State and Central Government medical colleges, standalone postgraduate institutes and government hospitals to create 5,000 additional PG medical seats. The scheme provides an enhanced financial ceiling of Rs 1.50 crore per seat from 2025-26 to 2028-29.
According to the Government, the National Medical Commission has introduced a regulatory framework under the Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations, 2023 and Post Graduate Minimum Standards Requirement, 2024 to facilitate the establishment of new postgraduate courses and increase seats in existing programmes, subject to prescribed norms relating to faculty, infrastructure and clinical facilities.
The Minister said the NBEMS has also undertaken measures to expand specialist training by easing accreditation norms without compromising quality, introducing new postgraduate programmes, implementing a joint accreditation system and encouraging district hospitals to start NBEMS courses.
Rejecting speculation over diploma conversion, the Government clarified that there is no proposal to convert all Diploma seats into full-fledged Diplomate of National Board (DNB) degree seats.
On fee regulation, the Minister said fixation of fees for postgraduate medical courses is the responsibility of State and Union Territory governments. However, the NMC has issued guidelines regulating fees for 50 per cent of seats in private medical colleges and deemed universities, though these guidelines are currently sub judice before various courts. The Government added that fees for NBEMS courses, including DNB, DrNB, FNB and Diploma programmes, are centrally regulated, with an annual course fee of Rs 1.25 lakh across the country.
The Government also informed Parliament that the highest increase in PG seats in recent years came in 2025-26, when 9,084 seats were approved by the NMC and 2,009 by the NBEMS.
