New Delhi, 24 September (IANS). The Union Cabinet chaired by Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Wednesday approved the third phase of the Central Sponsored Scheme (CSS) to strengthen and upgrade the current medical colleges of the state government/central government, independent PG institutes and government hospitals.
Under this scheme, 5,000 PG seats will be increased and CSS will also be increased for upgrade to existing government medical colleges, which will increase 5,023 MBBS seats. The cost limit per seat has been increased to Rs 1.50 crore.
The total financial expenditure of both these schemes will be Rs 15,034.50 crore between 2025-26 and 20-29, out of which the central government’s share will be Rs 10,303.20 crore and the state government’s share will be Rs 4731.30 crore.
In his speech on Independence Day in 2024, PM Modi said that the government will create 75,000 new medical seats in the next five years to increase the country’s healthcare infrastructure.
Currently, the world has the highest, 808 medical colleges in India, which have a total capacity of 1,23,700 MBBS seats.
In the last 10 years, 69,352 new MBBS seats have been added in the country, which is a 127 percent increase. 43,041 PG seats were also added during the same period, which is an increase of 143 percent.
Despite this, there is a need to increase capacity to meet healthcare in some areas and to meet affordable rates.
The cabinet said that this initiative will increase undergraduate medical capacity, increase the number of PG seats by increasing the availability of specialist doctors and new specialty can be started in government medical institutions. Overall, with this initiative, the total availability of doctors in the country will be strengthened.
This will ensure a balanced regional distribution of healthcare resources in a cost effective way using existing infrastructure.
Its objective is to provide more opportunities to students to get medical education in India, improve medical education and training quality as per global standards and increase availability of doctors and experts.
In particular, this initiative is expected to create direct and indirect employment opportunities in the form of doctors, faculty, paramedical staff, researchers, administrators and support services.
-IANS
SKT/