The Chief Minister's Office of Himachal Pradesh convened a meeting in Shimla on Saturday, 25 July 2026, bringing together students and senior officials of the state Health Department to address the predicament of medical graduates who completed their MBBS from eligible foreign colleges but were forced into online instruction due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

The official post stated: 'Paatr videshi chikitsa mahavidyalayon se MBBS kar chuke aur COVID-19 mahamari ke kaaran utpann aparihaarya paristhitiyon mein online kakshaon ke madhyam se adhyayan karne waale snaatakon ko…' — translated: 'Graduates who completed MBBS from eligible foreign medical colleges and who, due to unavoidable circumstances arising from the COVID-19 pandemic, studied through online classes…' The post trails off, suggesting a formal announcement or relief measure is forthcoming.

Context

When the COVID-19 pandemic swept the world from 2020 onwards, thousands of Indian students enrolled in foreign medical colleges — particularly in countries such as Ukraine, Russia, China, and the Philippines — found their physical campuses shuttered. Many were compelled to attend lectures and complete portions of their curriculum online, often from their home states in India, including Himachal Pradesh.

This created a regulatory grey zone: the National Medical Commission (NMC), India's central regulator for medical education, sets strict norms for in-person clinical training that foreign graduates must satisfy before they can sit the Foreign Medical Graduate Examination (FMGE) and seek licensure to practise in India.

Policy Backdrop

The NMC issued guidelines in 2021 permitting limited online components in foreign medical programmes disrupted by the pandemic, while still insisting on substantial in-person clinical exposure. However, the gap between what pandemic-era graduates could complete and what the NMC requires for full recognition has left many students in limbo, unable to proceed to internships or clear licensing hurdles.

Several Indian states have held similar consultations with affected students in recent years, typically exploring bridging pathways — such as supervised clinical rotations at state-run hospitals or targeted preparatory support for the FMGE — to align student credentials with central regulatory standards. Himachal Pradesh's move to convene such a meeting signals that the state government is actively engaging with this cohort rather than leaving resolution entirely to the central regulator.

Stakeholders and Impact

The students at the centre of this issue invested significant time and money pursuing medical degrees abroad, only to return home mid-course due to the pandemic. Their inability to practise medicine in India without clearing regulatory hurdles represents both a personal financial setback and a potential loss of trained medical manpower for a state like Himachal Pradesh, which faces chronic shortages of doctors in its hill districts.

The Himachal Pradesh Health Department's senior officials at the meeting are expected to map out what state-level mechanisms — such as internship slots in government hospitals or liaison with the NMC — can be activated to help these graduates meet outstanding requirements. Any state-level support would need to operate within the framework the NMC has set, making central-state coordination critical.

What's Next

The truncated nature of the official post strongly implies that a follow-up announcement — detailing specific relief measures, internship allocations, or an official representation to the NMC — is imminent. Observers will watch whether Himachal Pradesh becomes an early mover in formalising a state-level support structure for pandemic-affected foreign medical graduates, a model other hill and smaller states could potentially replicate.

If the state government secures internship placements or facilitates structured FMGE preparation for this cohort, it could meaningfully ease a bottleneck that has stalled the careers of hundreds of young doctors from the state.