BJP MP Anurag Thakur addressed the inaugural session of the Bharat Uchch Shiksha Shikhar Sammelan-2026 at Chandigarh University, Mohali, on Thursday, June 18, 2026, citing a sweeping expansion of medical and higher-education infrastructure under the Modi government since 2014. The former Union Minister used the platform to draw a detailed before-and-after comparison of institutional capacity across medical colleges, IITs, IIMs, and universities.

Context

Speaking at the summit, Thakur framed the government's record under the rubric of 'Reform, Perform aur Transform' (Reform, Perform and Transform), a phrase closely associated with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's governance philosophy. He stated that medical colleges had grown from 350 before 2014 to 706 today, while MBBS seats had more than doubled from roughly 51,000 to over 1.08 lakh. Postgraduate medical seats, he added, rose from around 31,000 to over 70,000 in the same period.

On the premier-institution front, Thakur noted that the number of AIIMS campuses expanded from 7 to 23, IITs from 12 to 19, and IIMs from 16 to 23. The total count of universities, he said, climbed from 450 in 2014 to more than 1,100 today.

Policy Backdrop

The expansion of AIIMS campuses beyond the original seven — located in New Delhi, Bhopal, Bhubaneswar, Jodhpur, Patna, Raipur and Rishikesh — was driven largely by the Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha Yojana (PMSSY), which received substantially scaled funding after 2014 to address regional imbalances in tertiary healthcare and medical education. New IIT campuses were set up through a combination of fresh establishments and upgradation of existing technical institutions.

The National Education Policy 2020, approved by the Union Cabinet, set out targets for raising India's gross enrolment ratio and expanding multidisciplinary and professional-education capacity — providing a policy framework within which many of these seat additions were pursued. The broader objective, as articulated by the government, has been to reduce the dependence of Indian students on foreign medical and technical universities.

Stakeholders and Impact

The most direct beneficiaries of the seat expansion are medical and engineering aspirants: a doubling of MBBS seats to over 1.08 lakh means proportionally more students can pursue domestic medical education without going abroad. State governments are key implementation partners, as many new medical colleges and universities operate under state jurisdiction even when centrally incentivised.

For postgraduate medical aspirants, the rise in PG seats from 31,000 to over 70,000 is particularly significant given long-standing demand-supply mismatches that had made competitive examinations exceptionally difficult. Management and technology sectors similarly benefit from the addition of seven new IIMs and seven new IITs, which have extended access to premium institution-branded education to newer geographies.

What's Next

Parliamentary deliberations on the 2026-27 Union education budget will be closely watched for fresh approvals of additional AIIMS or IIT campuses. State-level compliance reports on National Education Policy 2020 implementation — particularly on multidisciplinary curriculum rollout and faculty recruitment at newer institutions — will determine whether quantitative expansion translates into qualitative outcomes.

The Bharat Uchch Shiksha Shikhar Sammelan-2026 itself is expected to produce a set of recommendations on higher-education governance, which could feed into regulatory changes by the University Grants Commission and the National Medical Commission in the coming months.