Under The Scalpel - Reviving India’s Medical Education

“Under the Scalpel: Reviving India’s Medical Education peels back the layers of India’s troubled medical education system with the precision of an audit and the empathy of a storyteller. From the high-pressure corridors of NEET exam halls to the crumbling classrooms and infrastructure of many private medical colleges, this book exposes how commercialization, inequity, and regulatory lapses have turned medical education into both a billion-rupee business and a national tragedy. Drawing from his unique vantage as a former civil servant with wide exposure to Government sector spread over three decades and Secretary to the Supreme Court–appointed Oversight Committee on Medical Council of India in 2006-17, P. Sesh Kumar offers a view of a non medical person and an insider’s account of backroom deals, political patronage, and the slow, painful birth of the National Medical Commission. Yet amid the chaos, he finds sparks of hope — doubling of MBBS seats, increase in medical colleges, visionary educators, innovative digital teaching, and a generation demanding further effective reform. Blending first-hand encounters, policy analysis, and gripping real-life narratives, this book is both a diagnosis and a prescription — urging India to rebuild its medical education system on the foundations of transparency, fairness, and compassion without compromising quality-also offering a comparative view of the status of medical eduation internationally". Read more