The Centre has clarified that AYUSH graduates do not have a specific central reservation quota when seeking admission to MBBS courses through NEET-UG, Parliament was informed on Tuesday.
In a written reply to the Rajya Sabha, the Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare Anupriya Patel highlighted that AYUSH degree holders — including those qualified in systems such as Ayurveda, Yoga and Naturopathy, Unani, Siddha, and Homoeopathy — are eligible to appear for NEET-UG under the same criteria as other candidates.
Their eligibility is governed by the Graduate Medical Education Regulations (GMER) and additional norms that may be notified by the National Medical Commission (NMC), without any special preference based solely on their AYUSH qualifications.
Admissions to the 15 per cent All India Quota (AIQ) for MBBS seats are conducted by the Medical Counselling Committee under the Directorate General of Health Services in accordance with reservation policies issued by the Government of India. State quota seats, which make up the remaining positions in medical colleges, are regulated by individual states and Union Territories based on their own reservation norms.
This clarification follows queries about whether AYUSH qualifications afford any advantage in centralised MBBS admissions. The government reiterated that no central reservation exists specifically for AYUSH graduates under the national counselling process.
