The students of India’s most populous states seem to have lost out in the latest National Medical Commissions permissions for increased intake for MBBS. While states like Karnataka and Maharashtra managed to increase student intake by 400 and 350, respectively, Three of the most populous states seem to have got a raw deal.
According to the marking scheme for the NEET UG 2026, candidates will be awarded four marks for each right answer, whereas one mark will be deducted for each wrong response.
The poll bound Bihar got ZERO increase, Uttar Pradesh secured just 50 MBBS seats and West Bengal got just 75 MBBS seats. Even Andhra Pradesh, an NDA ally, could get just 30 seats for itself.
Interestingly, all the seats increased in Tamil Nadu and Kerala were in the Private Deemed medical institutes space. It would be interesting to know whether the demand for increase in the government medical college seats by governments of Tamil Nadu and Kerala were rejected.
State | New Govt Colleges | Govt Seat Increase (existing) | Deemed Univ Increase | Total |
Karnataka | 0 | 400 | 50 | 450 |
Maharashtra | 50 | 0 | 300 | 350 |
Madhya Pradesh | 200 | 75 | 0 | 275 |
Odisha | 200 | 0 | 50 | 250 |
Haryana | 200 | 0 | 0 | 200 |
Jammu & Kashmir | 0 | 190 | 0 | 190 |
Assam | 50 | 125 | 0 | 175 |
Tamil Nadu | 0 | 0 | 150 | 150 |
Kerala | 100 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
Punjab | 50 | 50 | 0 | 100 |
Rajasthan | 100 | 0 | 0 | 100 |
Telangana | 50 | 25 | 0 | 75 |
West Bengal | 0 | 75 | 0 | 75 |
Delhi (NCT) | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
Gujarat | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
Meghalaya | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
Uttar Pradesh | 50 | 0 | 0 | 50 |
Andhra Pradesh | 0 | 30 | 0 | 30 |
TOTAL | 1,200 | 970 | 550 | 2,720 |
The lack of allocations to Bihar, UP and West Bengal could have been justified if they already have high intake. However, Bihar has less than 23 doctors for a million population - the lowest in the country (basis the top 20 most populous states in India). Uttar Pradesh has just 52 to a million population. On the other hand, Karnataka has 183 doctors to a million population, Tamil Nadu has 156 and Maharashtra has 92 doctors to a million population.
S.No | State / UT | Seats | Population (Million) | Seats per Million Population |
1 | Telangana | 9,065 | 38.5 | 235.45 |
2 | Karnataka | 12,545 | 68.7 | 182.61 |
3 | Tamil Nadu | 12,050 | 77.4 | 155.68 |
4 | Kerala | 4,905 | 36.1 | 135.93 |
5 | Andhra Pradesh | 6,735 | 52.9 | 127.34 |
6 | Jammu & Kashmir | 1,347 | 12.3 | 109.59 |
7 | Gujarat | 7,250 | 73.5 | 98.64 |
8 | Maharashtra | 11,846 | 128.7 | 92.04 |
9 | Rajasthan | 6,476 | 78.2 | 82.85 |
10 | Chhattisgarh | 2,255 | 31 | 72.74 |
11 | Haryana | 2,185 | 31.1 | 70.37 |
12 | Delhi | 1,497 | 22.3 | 67.13 |
13 | Odisha | 2,725 | 42 | 64.88 |
14 | Madhya Pradesh | 5,200 | 82.3 | 63.16 |
15 | Punjab | 1,850 | 31.2 | 59.29 |
16 | West Bengal | 5,676 | 100.2 | 56.66 |
17 | Assam | 1,650 | 31.2 | 52.88 |
18 | Uttar Pradesh | 12,475 | 241 | 51.76 |
19 | Jharkhand | 1,055 | 33 | 31.97 |
20 | Bihar | 2,995 | 131 | 22.86 |
So, the big question that needs to be asked is this:
Why are the three most populous states also with very low doctor to population ratio not increasing capacity?
Why are we not investing enough in medical education in these states so that they can have better healthcare professionals?
Why are we ignoring these states?
Why is it that Tamil Nadu and Kerala did not get any sanction for public institutions and all that have been granted are private MBBS seats only?
On Question asked by student community
Government Medical Colleges in states like Rajasthan, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Haryana, Punjab, Gujarat, Maharashtra
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