Indian medical education system is broken, Reuters investigation finds

India’s medical education system is fraudulent and unprofessional, says a damning new report based on four months of investigation across the country.1

The Reuters news agency said that the ramifications of its investigation are global, noting, “India is the world’s largest exporter of doctors, with about 47 000 currently practising in the United States and about 25 000 in the United Kingdom.” In its assessment the agency used government documents, court filings, and interviews that documented widespread fraud and cheating in medical training.

The investigation found that a sixth of the country’s 398 medical schools have been accused of cheating or other transgressions such as rigging entrance exams or accepting bribes to admit students. Accreditation of schools and regulatory inspections were found to be corrupt, involving the recruitment of fake doctors to elude inspectors and paying or exploiting local villagers to pose …