A study on comparative growth and development of medical education in India and Karnataka

India has witnessed rapid growth in its number of medical colleges over the last few decades particularly in recent years. One of the most important features of this growth has been expansion in the private medical colleges. At the present point of time it is relevant to trace historically and geographically the changing role of the public and private sectors in the Indian medical education system. During the last two decades (1990 to 2014), private medical colleges have increased by 405 percent compared to 72 percent for government medical colleges and currently, private sector owns more than half of the total medical colleges and student enrolment. Interestingly, this growth has occurred primarily in economically better-off and healthier states of India (having three-fourth of the total private medical colleges), while the low –income states are lagging behind though they have poor health indicators. The unequal distribution of medical colleges has resulted regional differences in the access to doctors in the country.