The Central government has approved the establishment of 75 new medical colleges in the country. Union Ministers Prakash Javadekar and Piyush Goyal said at a press conference that this would lead to the creation 15,700 more MBBS seats in India. The Cabinet Committee on Economic Affairs (CCEA) said that the medical colleges would be established by 2021-22. This will be attached with existing district and referral hospitals under Phase-3 of the ongoing Centrally Sponsored scheme.

The new medical colleges would be set up in those regions with no medical college or ones with at least 200 beds. Although preference will be given to district hospitals with 300 beds. The government further plans to boost the availability of qualified health professionals, improve tertiary care in the government sector. They also plan to utilise the infrastructure of district hospitals and promote affordable medical education in the country. 

The government had earlier approved the establishment of 58 new medical colleges in Phase 1 and 24 colleges in Phase 2. 39 medical colleges under Phase 1 have already become functional, and the rest will be made functional by 2020-21. In addition to that, 75 colleges will be formed under Phase 3.

Javadekar and Goyal also announced 100 per cent foreign direct investment (FDI) in coal mining and associated infrastructure and 26 per cent FDI in digital media. “Cabinet has approved establishment of an international Coalition for Disaster Resilient Infrastructure (CDRI); PM Modi to launch CDRI during UN Climate Summit in New York on 23rd September 2019,” explained Javadekar.