Indian medical education system has seen rapid growth in the last two decades. From a miniscule number, private medical colleges have grown to account for more than half of the 270 medical colleges in 2008 and consequently, India has the highest number of medical educators in the world. This unregulated unequal growth brings two issues to focus: the failing quality of medical education and implementing effective solutions to address an artificial faulty shortage due to doctor mal-distribution. The menace posed by the growing merchandisation of medical education has to be warded off and efforts should be made to ensure maintenance of standards and check the unplanned growth of substandard medical colleges and substandard education norms in universities or their constituent medical colleges. There is a strong case for a review of the entire system of medical education and examinations in the country. Some solutions like increasing retirement ages of MD faculty to 70 years, sharing of faculty, increasing MD seats, allowing clinical MDs to teach paraclinical and preclinical subjects or temporary merger of specialities have been proposed to address the faculty shortage instead of relying on inadequately qualified MSc non-medical faculty.

Keywords: Qualified Medical teacher, India, medical colleges, faculty shortage, Medical Council of India (MCI).Abbreviations DCI=Dental Council of India. MSc=Master of Science