• Key note address by the Minister of Health & Family Welfare Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad,

• Addressing the 33rd Convocation of PGIMER, Chandigarh, Shri Ghulam Nabi Azad, Minister for Health & Family Welfare that said a series of reforms in medical education have been undertaken to overcome the acute shortage of human resources in health at various levels.
• The number of MBBS seats has increased by 46% and PG seats by 70% in the last five years.
• The availability of MBBS seats has gone up from 33,567 to 45,629 and the number of PG seats increased from 13,838 to 22,850.
• 72 new medical colleges, including six AIIMS, were established raising the number from 290 to 362.
• The Medical Colleges at the six new AIIMS have started functioning with admission of 50 students each in September, 2012.
• Another important initiative has been the launch of the single entrance test in the name of National Eligibility-cum-Entrance Test (NEET) for admission to UG and PG medical courses being conducted from the academic year 2013-14 to save the students from hardships faced in appearing in multiple entrance exams across the country and bring uniformity in the standards of admission to the medical course to promote merit.
• Several other proposals are being considered by the Ministry to give a fillip to the medical education sector, especially increasing the intake of MBBS students, during the 12th Five Year Plan, beginning this year. 
• Source: PG Blazer