New Delhi: In his Independence Day speech on Thursday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi pledged to add 75,000 more medical seats to the country’s existing over one lakh seats in the next five years in an effort to improve healthcare.
“In the last 10 years, we have increased the number of medical seats to nearly 1 lakh in the country,” PM Modi said while delivering his eleventh Independence Day speech from the ramparts of the Red Fort.
He expressed his concern that children, particularly those from the middle class, are compelled to seek medical education abroad.
“Around 25,000 youths every year go abroad for medical education,” he said, adding: “They go to such countries that I get surprised when I hear about them.”
He said they spend ‘lakhs and crores’, which translates to hundreds of thousands and millions of rupees, on medical education abroad.
“So we have decided 75,000 new seats will be created in the medical line in the next five years,” Modi stated.
The PM underlined the government’s ambition to establish an education system in India that would eliminate the need for youngsters to study abroad. Instead, he envisions a scenario where foreign students choose India as their preferred destination for higher education.
According to government data, the number of medical colleges in the country has increased by 82 percent —from 387 before 2014 to 704 in 2023.
In the same period, the total number of MBBS seats surged from 51,348 to 1,07,948 — a 110 per cent increase.
Meanwhile, the Prime Minister also introduced the Rashtriya Poshan Mission. He reiterated the importance of the ‘Viksit Bharat 2047 initiative, emphasising the vision of ‘Swasth Bharat’ (Healthy India) as a crucial component.
“‘Viksit Bharat’ should also mean ‘Healthy Bharat’; thus, nutrition is of prime importance,” he said.
“The first generation of a prosperous Bharat must be healthy, which is why we have launched the Poshan Mission,” Modi added.
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