A New Era of Growth: Regulatory Reforms Pave way for 54% growth in No. of Medical Colleges

The Healthcare industry is one of India’s largest sectors, both in terms of revenue and employment

The Healthcare industry is one of India’s largest sectors, both in terms of revenue and employment. It employs a total of 4.7 million people and has generated 2.7 million additional jobs in India between 2017-22. Indian healthcare is growing at a CAGR of 22% between 2016–2022 and will reach US$ 372 billion in 2022 from US$ 110 billion in 2016.

The Medical Colleges in India grew by 1.3% per year from 1972 to 1980, 1.8% from 1981 to 1990 and 4.43% from 1991 to 2000 and 5.8% from 2001 to 2010. The average annual growth rate stood at 6.68% from 2011 onwards making it the highest in the last five decades.

The structural reforms and schemes in medical colleges, implemented in the last six years, have addressed various challenges in the form of reducing skyrocketing tuition fees and vagueness in college admissions, increasing the number of medical seats, improving the course curriculum, bridging the gap between rural and urban colleges and easing the process to open new medical colleges.

Growth of Medical Colleges in India

India had only 98 medical colleges in 1972, which crawled up to a mere 109 in 1981. The following decade saw only 19 colleges coming up, upping the tally to 128. Things started speeding up from this point onwards, with 189 medical colleges by 2001 and 314 by 2011. The number of Medical colleges in India almost doubled to 595, from 335 between 2011 and 2021.

The number of medical colleges expanded from 381 to 595 between the years 2014 and 2021. MBBS seats in top MBBS colleges in India grew by 72%, from 51,348 seats to 88,370 seats and postgraduate seats expanded by 78%, from 31,185 seats before 2014 to 55,595 seats as per Minister of Health and Family Welfare in Lok Sabha session on 10th December 2021.

New Medical Colleges in India