10-day yoga training course must for MBBS students

The NMC set 2026 as the year to hold the first nationwide exit examination for the undergraduate medical students

The National Medical Commission has asked the state governments, universities and medical colleges to introduce a ten-day yoga course in the MBBS programme culminating on the international yoga day on June 21 – promoted by the BJP government – and set 2026 as the year to hold the first nationwide exit examination for the undergraduate medical students.

Both are part of a new competency-based undergraduate medical education curricula that the NMC released on Thursday.

As a part of the foundation course, the new curriculum proposes one hour of yoga training from June 12 onward so that the teaching module ends on June 21, which is being celebrated as international yoga day.

All medical schools across the country have been asked to celebrate yoga day and all batches of MBBS students have been advised to practice yoga.

The undergraduate board of the NMC may issue a common yoga module, but colleges are free to pick up their own. Also the colleges have been advised to induct a yoga unit.

In addition, the curricula seek to expose medical students to community health through a “family adoption” programme from the first year of the MBBS course and introduce them to Maharshi Charak Shapath – a set of ethical codes for budding doctors.

However, the NMC undergraduate board has not proposed replacing the Hippocratic Oath with Charak Shapath. Earlier this week, the Union Minister of State for Health Bharti Pawar informed the Parliament that as per the NMC there was no proposal to replace the Hippocratic Oath with Charak Shapath.

The board has planned the first round of NEXT in April 2026 for the 2021-22 MBBS batch which joined the colleges in February-March of 2022.The counselling will happen in May-June, 2027 after the internship and the PG course will start from July 2027.

A common final year exam - National Exit Test - to assess the quality of medical education would be the basis for PG entrance and as the screening test for getting a registration. The students shall not have to appear in a separate examination for PG entrance and may focus on the UG subjects and internship.

“This is just a new dish from the old recipe. There is nothing new in the inner structure of the curriculum. Even after the pandemic there is no extra time or practical skill allocations in virology, microbiology or handling of a pandemic,” said an office bearer of the Federation of All India Medical Association.

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