Lucknow: Indian medical degrees may gain greater global value, with projections suggesting that by 2035, every third doctor worldwide could be from India.
According to WHO estimates, of the 8.2 million doctors globally, about 1.3 million are in India, meaning roughly one in seven doctors today is trained in the country.
The data was shared by Prof Ved Prakash Mishra, chief adviser at Datta Meghe Institute of Higher Education and Research (Deemed University), Nagpur, at the third convocation of Ram Manohar Lohia Institute of Medical Sciences (RMLIMS) on Monday.
Mishra, who was the chief guest, said India’s global standing in medical education improved after the World Federation for Medical Education (WFME) recognised the National Medical Commission (NMC) in 2023, bringing all its colleges under global standards.
“Before Sept 2023, only six Indian institutions were in the WFME directory. After the recognition, all NMC-regulated colleges were included,” he said.
He added that India now has more than 800 medical colleges, with 1.22 lakh MBBS seats and 76,000 postgraduate seats, and could become the world’s largest source of doctors by 2035.
Mishra said India introduced competency-based medical education in 2019, focusing on practical skills and patient care, with the first batch graduating in 2023.
He added that while technologies such as robotics and artificial intelligence are advancing, medicine must retain compassion, stressing the need to balance innovation with humane values and train responsible doctors for the future.
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About the Author: Vivek Singh Chauhan, hailing from poet Shivmangal Singh Suman's land, is a medical and civic reporter with a penchant for Urdu poetry and ghazals. A "Sapiens" advocate, he equates sugar to alcohol for its metabolic mayhem. Times scribe winner, non-fiction lover, cricket player, and podcast enthusiast.
