Medical Seats Saga
Why is there such a huge mismatch between the number of medical seats and the number of kids applying for them? Going by instinct alone, and from what we hear from parents of kids, well, that approach doesn’t get us to all the right reasons, I realized as I read Pranay Kotasthane’s post. Few, he says, talk of the topic dispassionately: “Ask anyone about MBBS education in India, and they will launch into a tirade about how the “commercialisation” of medical education has turned it unaffordable.” But let us be more analytical than emotional. Prices are high because the demand is far greater than the supply. Usually, when such a condition exists, more producers enter the market, i.e., more medical colleges should have opened up. So why didn’t that happen? Because nobody wants us every Tom, Dick and Harry to open medical schools, do we? What kind of doctors would we end up with? Obviously then, regulations are needed on the criteria to open medica...