How to start a private medical college in India

Who can apply

The 2023 establishment regulations allow applications from governments, universities, government-promoted autonomous bodies, registered societies and companies set up under Section 8 of the Companies Act, 2013. Many private colleges are run by trusts; a draft amendment published in July 2026 proposes to name trusts and any company as eligible, but it is not final yet.

What has to be ready before you apply

The regulations expect the college to meet the minimum standards on the date of application, and recent NMC notices say there is no “work in progress” status. In practice, these pieces need to be in place:

• Land and campus owned or on a long lease, with the college and hospital on one campus or two nearby plots.
• A running teaching hospital of the size the minimum standards set for your number of seats, with patients, emergency services and support departments.
• College buildings and departments: lecture theatres, laboratories, museums, dissection hall, skills lab, library, hostels and offices, each equipped and furnished.
• Faculty and staff recruited, with attendance on NMC's biometric system.
• Rural and urban health training centres for community medicine.
• Finances: proof of funds, a corpus, and capacity for the bank guarantee asked for after approval.

The exact figures for beds, rooms, faculty and equipment are in the UG-MSR 2023 schedules, which NMC amended in April 2026. Read them for the seat number you plan.

Approvals you will need

You will need an Essentiality Certificate from your state government, a Consent of Affiliation from a university, and then a Letter of Permission from NMC's Medical Assessment and Rating Board (MARB). After that, the college renews its permission every year until its MBBS degree is recognised. Our step-by-step guide explains each one.

The yearly cycle

NMC accepts applications only when MARB publishes a notice inviting them, on its online portal. For the 2026-27 academic year, applications were taken around December 2025 and January 2026, decisions and permissions followed by about July 2026, and students joined through NEET counselling after that. For 2027-28, MARB's notice of 8 October 2026 opened the portal on 8 October 2026, with the second part (the minimum-standards compliance data) open from 1 November to 31 December 2026. Dates and fees change every year, so check the notice for your cycle.

Where purchasing fits in

Because the college and hospital must be ready before the application, most equipment and furniture is bought in the year before you apply. Planning department by department early avoids last-minute gaps. Our department lists and list builder help you plan each department and get one quotation for all of it.

Recent changes to watch

• April 2026: NMC amended UG-MSR 2023. It removed the 150-seat cap and the seats-per-population ratio, and replaced the travel-time rule between college and hospital with a distance limit.
• July 2026 (draft, not final): a proposed amendment would drop the Essentiality Certificate, widen who can apply, and reject incomplete applications outright. No final notification had been published as of 10 October 2026.
• 8 October 2026: MARB invited applications for 2027-28. As reported, infrastructure and statutory requirements must be complete and working on the date of application, incomplete or work-in-progress applications are rejected without further communication, applicants give an undertaking for a corpus fund, and geo-tagged photographs of the college and hospital are required.