Gujarat sets a 21,840 rupee monthly stipend for foreign medical graduates on internship

Gujarat will pay foreign medical graduates 21,840 rupees a month during their compulsory internship in the state, the same rate as interns who trained in Gujarat colleges. Health minister Praful Pansheriya announced the decision after a meeting at Swarnim Sankul-2 in Gandhinagar. The first group he named is about 350 doctors who received internship postings between 1 June and 1 October 2026, at government medical colleges and GMERS colleges.

The National Medical Commission requires a doctor who completed an MBBS abroad to do a one-year internship in India before full registration. Until this order, that year in Gujarat was unpaid for the foreign-trained cohort, while in-state interns were paid. The new rate closes that gap at 21,840 rupees. It does not change the length of the internship or the colleges where it can be done.

Who is inside the 350

Pansheriya's public count is the cohort allotted between June and October 2026. A joint statement from Dr Neel Bhatt, Gujarat president of AIMSA-FMSW and the All FMGs Association, and Dr Samar Kumar, national vice-president of the same bodies, welcomed the order and described a wider gate. They said eligible interns include those whose internships began on 15 December 2025, 1 June 2026 and 1 October 2026, in government and GMERS colleges.

The two descriptions are not the same list. The minister's 350 is a posted figure for a four-month allotment window. The association's note adds a December 2025 start. Whether those earlier interns are paid retrospectively, or only from the date of the order, was not spelled out in the minister's post. That difference is a month of wages for anyone who started in December and is still on the rota.

What 21,840 rupees sits next to

The rate is parity with Gujarat's own interns, not a new national floor. Uttarakhand has set its intern stipend at 25,000 rupees a month, a figure the Indian Express placed beside the Gujarat announcement. A foreign-trained doctor who can choose a state for the compulsory year now has a published price difference of a few thousand rupees a month, before rent and city. Gujarat's decision removes the zero that applied to FMGs. It does not make Gujarat the highest payer.

Over a 12-month internship, 21,840 rupees a month is 2,62,080 rupees before any deduction. For the 350 doctors in the minister's count, a full year at that rate is about 9.2 crore rupees if every one of them serves the whole year in the state. Some will already have started, so the remaining liability is smaller than a full year times 350. The order is still a state health-budget line that did not exist for this group last month.

Why the internship is the bottleneck

A graduate of a foreign medical school cannot practise on the foreign degree alone. The NMC year is the gate, and in several states it has been an unpaid gate. Associations have treated the missing stipend as a reason doctors delay the year, or pick a state that pays. Gujarat's order is a state answer to that, limited to government and GMERS seats. It does not speak to private-college internships, and it does not change the screening exam an FMG has to pass before the internship is allotted.

Pansheriya's post said doctors who finished MBBS abroad and are interning in government and GMERS colleges will now receive 21,840 rupees a month, like other interns. The meeting that produced the line was with department officials at the state secretariat. No college-by-college vacancy list was released with it.

The line that still needs a date

The useful remainder is the start date for pay. June to October 2026 is the minister's cohort. December 2025 is the association's. A doctor who began on 15 December and is still unpaid for the months already served will want to know if the order is prospective. Until the department circular says so, the announced fact is the rate and the colleges: 21,840 rupees a month, government and GMERS, brought level with interns trained in Gujarat.