The number of MBBS seats in India on Wednesday crossed 1.36 lakh, with the National Medical Commission (NMC) notifying 1,36,939 seats for the 2026-27 academic session, up about 8 per cent from around 1.27 lakh seats in 2025.This year, 1,36,939 MBBS seats will be available across 823 medical colleges — 441 government and 382 private. Of the total seats, 1,27,028 have been renewed from the previous academic session, while 9,911 are newly added seats.Government medical colleges will offer 63,296 MBBS seats, including 61,185 renewed seats and 2,111 newly added seats. Private medical colleges will offer 73,643 seats, comprising 65,843 renewed seats and 7,800 newly added seats.The details published by the National Medical Commission (NMC) in its much-awaited “Seat Matrix for Undergraduate (MBBS) Courses for Academic Year 2026-27” say that the figures exclude MBBS seats in institutes of national importance (INIs) such as AIIMS, JIPMER-Puducherry and PGIMER, Chandigarh. Together, these centrally funded institutions account for around 2,900 undergraduate medical seats annually.The NMC said this year’s matrix included 2,400 fresh MBBS seats from 25 newly established medical colleges — 400 seats across seven new government colleges and 2,000 seats across 18 new private colleges — expanding medical education access in several states.New medical colleges that will offer MBBS courses from this year will include Sanskaram School of Medical Sciences (Haryana).The highest number of seats this session have gone to Karnataka (15,395) followed by Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra. Haryana’s colleges will offer 2,960 MBBS seats and Punjab’s 1,850.Chandigarh Government medical college has got additional 50 MBBS seats and will offer 200. The NMC has renewed 200 MBBS seats at Faridabad’s Al Falah Centre, embroiled in Red Fort blast case.