Daybreak - How NRI quota became the golden ticket to med school for rich Indians

Episode Date: October 22, 2024

Late last month, the Supreme Court made a very strong statement about NRI quotas at medical colleges. It essentially said that the whole thing was a fraud. But the thing is, since the Supreme Court called it out, the practice has only gotten murkier. So The Ken reporter Alifiya Khan conducted an investigation. She scoured several social networking sites only to find countless posts promising seats in medical institutes to aspirants who scored way  below the required cutoff and even those who were hardly eligible for the NRI quota. The only requirement? Well, applicants need to be ready to cough up some big bucks. The Ken wanted to see if there was something to these claims. So Alifiya went undercover. She posed as the sibling of a Maharashtra-based MBBS aspirant, with a measly NEET score of 180. She then contacted four education consultancies. And all of them, quite unsurprisingly, had boilerplate replies. The running thread – regardless of your score, they would hook you up with a medical college. And yet, most people high up in medical colleges don’t want to let go of NRI quota. Because in many ways it is what keeps the whole system afloat. What’s going on? Stay tuned. 

Hi, this is Rohan Dharma Kumar. If you've heard any of the Ken's podcasts, you've probably heard me, my interruptions, my analogies, and my contrarian takes on most topics. And you might rightly be wondering why am I interrupting this episode too. It's for a special announcement. For the last few months, I and Sita Ramon Ganeshan, my colleague and the Ken's deputy editor, have been working on an ambitious new podcast. It's called Intermission.

We want to tell the secret sauce stories of India's greatest companies. Stories of how they were born, how they fought to survive, how they build their organizations and culture, how they manage to innovate and thrive over decades, and most importantly, how they're poised today. To do that, Sita and I have been reading books, poring over reports, going through financial statements, digging up archives, and talking to dozens of people. And if that wasn't enough, we also decided to throw in video into the mix. Yes, you heard that right. Intermission has also had to find its footing in the world of multi-camera shoots in professional studios, laborious editing, and extensive post-production. Sita and I are still reeling from the intensity of our first studio recording.

Intermission launches on March 23rd. To get an alert as soon as we release our first episode, please follow intermission on Spotify and Apple Podcasts or subscribe to the Ken's YouTube channel. You can find all of the links at the ken.com slash I am. With that, back to your episode. Late last month, the Supreme Court made a very strong statement about non-resident Indian quotas at medical colleges.

It essentially said that the whole thing was a fraud. For context, the Supreme Court was here. during an appeal by the Punjab government, challenging an order by the Punjab and Haryana High Court. Let me break that down for you by explaining what exactly happened. You see, the Punjab government decided to expand the definition of NRI quota for undergraduate medical admissions. It wanted it to include relatives of non-resident Indians too.

So it would mean that not only NRIs would be eligible for the quota, their cousins, nieces, nephews would all be eligible. Now, for obvious reasons, this decision was pretty controversial. Eventually, the Punjab and Haryana High Court came in and quashed the government's decision. The government then approached the Supreme Court to challenge that order, but the Supreme Court dismissed the appeal. In fact, Chief Justice of India, D.Y Chandichud said that it was time to stop this NRI-Kota business. The thing is, since the Supreme Court called it out, the practice has only gotten murkier.

So the Ken reporter Alifaya Khan conducted an investigation. She scoured several social networking sites, only to find countless posts promising seats in medical institutes to aspirants who scored way below the required cut-off and even those who were hardly eligible for the NRI quota. The only requirement? Well, applicants need to be ready to cough up some big bucks. The Ken wanted to see if there was something to these claims.

So, Alifia went undercover. She posed as a sibling of a Maharashtra-based MBBS aspirant with a measly need score of 180. She then contacted four education consultancies and all of them, quite unsurprisingly, had boilerplate replies. The running thread? Regardless of your score,

they would hook you up with a medical college. Alifia compared the whole experience to a busy day of shopping at a wholesale cloth market. She found that even meritorious medical aspirants play a role in this whole racket. Agents pay them to block seats in private medical colleges up until the very last moment. Eventually, they turned down the seat

and it is auctioned off at the college level to the highest bidder. Arviyashokin, the national president of the Indian Medical Association, the largest representative Indian organisation of modern corporate medicine doctors, called it an open secret. You see, this backdoor to the coveted MBBS seats

can often cost up to five times regular fees. In some cases, even more than that. And yet, most people hire up in medical colleges don't want to let go of NRI quota. Because in many ways, it is what keeps the whole system afloat. So what's going on? Welcome to Daybreak, a business podcast from the Ken. I'm your host Rahil Filippos, and I'll be joining my colleagues Tickta Sharma

every day of the week to bring you one business story that is worth understanding and worth your time. Today is Wednesday, the 23rd of October. To understand how this system works, Alifia spoke to several of these agents. across the country. One admission counsellor from a Rajasthan-based agency pulled out a rate card. They were offering different packages based on the applicant's need score. For context, this year, the minimum score for a general category student to qualify for MBBS admissions was 164. So for a score of 250 and below for a good private college, this agency was charging a crore and a half rupees and over for a deemed university. Then another counselor in UP told

Alifia that he would be able to get her admission at a college in Maharashtra easy-peasy. When she brought up that she had no blood relatives overseas, he said that wouldn't be an issue either. He could easily arrange a sponsor and pass him off as a relative. He even listed out a bunch of universities that had tie-ups with his agency that wouldn't mind filling NRI seats with his recommendations. The Ken, however, could not independently verify that claim. But we did speak to three medical college owners who all said they are aware of this practice but are not involved in any capacity. But agencies insist that they can hook you up. Basically, some genuine NRIs living abroad are shown as sponsors and are paid a certain amount of money for providing a letter of sponsorship.

You see, this is just one of the many loopholes that are being exploited, like blocking seats. For instance, say a student gets allotted a private medical college in the first round of counseling and then a cheaper or other desired college in the second or third round. They are allowed to cancel and switch, but the colleges don't declare these seats as cancelled until the last counselling round is over. Now, once that round ends, the admissions start taking place at the college, during which time these seats are auctioned. Basically, nothing is out of bounds,

especially for people who have money to spend. Stay tuned. Earlier this year, the IMA wrote to the Ministry of Education to abolish this NRI quota system. Their argument was simple. They said the only basis for many of these admissions was money. In the process, medical education was becoming unaffordable for deserving students. A senior IMA official told Elifia that there's a lot of politics at play here. Most medical colleges in Maharashtra, Karnatica, Punjab and Gujarat are owned by politicians

or educational societies established by politicians. So there's a lot of political lobbying around these seats. because they are, after all, a major money spinner. Take the example of Bharti Vidyapit deemed university medical college and hospital in Maharashtra Sangli. Reportedly, the institute not only took in a candidate who scored way below the cutoff score, it also charged that student over three times the management quota fee of $21 lakh rupees. And that's just one example. There are several others just like it.

But the thing is, this isn't a black and white issue. Three medical college deans and founders who spoke to Alifia defended the NRI quota. You see, NRIs, or in this case their seats, are the key players in running the economics of the medical education system. The fees per student under the government quota may be $4 to $5 lakh rupees, but the government claims it spends nearly eight times the amount per MBBS candidate. So for a private setup, some may argue that it makes business sense to charge some students a higher fee. In effect, one way to look at it is the NRI fees are used to subsidize education for general category students. One medical college consultant said if you take it away, medical colleges will suffer.

The practice has already begun in Maharashtra, where meritorious students are being charged 40 different types of unregulated fees because NRI seats are not being filled. The Ken spoke with management representatives from four medical colleges across the country. They all argued that there is no way these institutes can be run without these NRI seats. One of them, who was from a Maharashtra Medical College, said given the National Medical Commission's conditions, it takes between 600 to 700 crore rupees to set up a private medical college. But even with the medical institution's desperation to hold on to the NRI quota, their own target audience, the NRIs, has started a pushback. And that's thanks to the exorbitant fees.

You see, for now, given the controversy surrounding this quota, several medical colleges across the country have dropped their fees for NRI seats. They are afraid of vacancy. Others have converted the NRI quota seats to the general category. The change may have begun, but the rot lies too deep to clean all at once. Daybreak is produced from the newsroom of the Ken, India's first subscriber-focused business news platform. What you're listening to is just a small. sample of our subscriber-only offerings.

A full subscription unlocks daily long-form feature stories, newsletters and podcast extras. Head to the ken.com and click on the red subscribe button on the top of the website. Today's episode was hosted by Rahil Filippos and edited by Rajiv Sien.