Bengaluru: Karnataka Medical Education Minister Sharan Prakash Patil on Saturday said that the state has been granted 450 additional medical seats by the National Medical Commission (NMC) for the academic year 2025-26. This decision addresses a long-standing demand for more seats.
Besides this, the state has decided to introduce, for the first time, a 15 per cent NRI quota in government medical colleges in the state.
Addressing a press conference here, the minister said in the newly sanctioned seats, 15 per cent have been earmarked for NRI with a fixed fee of Rs 25 lakh per seat.
"This will help government medical colleges become financially more self-reliant rather than depending heavily on state grants," he said.
According to Patil, the additional seats have been allotted equally among medical colleges in Bengaluru, Mysuru, Belagavi, Kalaburagi, Chikkaballapura, Hassan, Raichur and Vijayanagara, each receiving 50 seats.
The medical college run by Mooru Savita mutt in Hubballi has also been granted 50 extra seats.
"This is truly a welcome development," he said.
After the NEET results, the first round of seat allotment had offered 9,263 seats. With the newly sanctioned seats, Karnataka now has 9,663 medical seats in total, he informed.
According to an official statement, earlier this year, NMC chairman Abhijit Chandrakant Seth had announced that 8,000 medical seats would be added across the country. Following this, Patil personally visited New Delhi and submitted a proposal seeking additional seats for Karnataka's government colleges.
"The number of students aspiring for medical education is rising every year. Many meritorious students are unable to afford the high fees in private colleges. Hence, we appealed for more seats, and I'm glad our request has been approved," the minister said.
Meanwhile, Patil, who is also the Skill Development Minister, announced that a Skill Summit modelled on the Bengaluru Tech Summit, will be organised in November this year.
A job fair will be held in Mysuru after the Dasara festivities, with registrations opening soon.
The minister also released the job fair poster at the event.
In addition, a nursing summit will be organised in October, followed by an international roadshow to promote the job fair, Patil added.
(Except for the headline, this article has not been edited by FPJ's editorial team and is auto-generated from an agency feed.)
