Healthcare exams in India: FMGE, NEET-PG, INI-CET and the NExT delay

Medical and health education in India

The MBBS takes five and a half years: four and a half years of study and a compulsory rotating internship of one year. Admission is through NEET-UG. India has several hundred medical colleges, which makes it one of the largest systems in the world, and the National Medical Commission (NMC) regulates them through its Medical Assessment and Rating Board. Instruction is in English.

Registration is made through the state medical council or the NMC’s National Medical Register after the internship. The NExT exit exam was designed to combine the final MBBS exam, the licensing test for Indian graduates and the postgraduate entrance ranking into one assessment. Its implementation has been postponed repeatedly, so confirm its status on the NMC site before planning around it. Foreign-trained graduates sit FMGE, covered below.

Nursing is a four-year B.Sc. or a three-and-a-half-year GNM diploma, regulated by the Indian Nursing Council. Pharmacy is a four-year B.Pharm or two-year D.Pharm under the Pharmacy Council of India. Dentistry is a four-year BDS plus a one-year internship under the Dental Council of India.

If you are used to the UK or US model, where one exam stands between a graduate and a licence, India will feel upside down. A final-year MBBS student here does not sit a national licensing paper. The competition is for what comes next: a postgraduate seat. And the one licensing-style test, FMGE, applies only to those who studied outside India.

Who needs a licensing exam in India

• Indian MBBS graduates: provisional registration after the final exam, permanent registration after internship, with the State Medical Council and the National Medical Commission (NMC). No licensing exam.
• Indian citizens or OCI holders with a foreign primary medical degree: must pass FMGE.
• Foreign-trained nurses and midwives: the Indian Nursing Council (INC) reviews documents for equivalency. No exam.
• BDS graduates: register with the State Dental Council by qualification. Those with foreign dental degrees sit the Foreign Dental Screening Test (FDST).
• D.Pharm graduates: must pass the Diploma in Pharmacy Exit Examination (DPEE) under the 2022 regulations, run by the National Board of Examinations in Medical Sciences (NBEMS) for the Pharmacy Council of India.

Doctors: FMGE, NEET-PG, INI-CET and the NExT question

Doctors face four exams in the system, but only one is a licensing test.

FMGE (Foreign Medical Graduate Examination)

Run by NBEMS on behalf of the NMC. It has 300 single-best-answer questions in two parts of 150, each lasting 2 hours 30 minutes, taken on computer. The pass mark is 150 out of 300. It is held twice a year, in June and December. The cohort is huge and draws on graduates from Russia, China, Ukraine, Kyrgyzstan, Bangladesh, Nepal and the Philippines. A 2026 NMC draft amendment keeps FMGE as the registration test for foreign graduates until NExT is in force.

NEET-PG

The main entry exam for MD, MS and PG Diploma seats, open to Indian MBBS graduates and FMGE-qualified foreign graduates who have completed internship. The 2026 edition was cut from 200 to 180 four-option questions in 3 hours 30 minutes, taken on computer in a single shift, and was held on 30 August 2026. NBEMS conducts it.

INI-CET

AIIMS New Delhi runs this exam for seats at the Institutes of National Importance (AIIMS, JIPMER, PGIMER, NIMHANS). It has 200 MCQs in 3 hours, computer-based, with +1 and -1/3 marking, held twice a year (January and July sessions). About 1,631 seats were on offer per session and 51,563 candidates qualified for the July 2026 session, according to a careers site. It is image-heavy and harder than NEET-PG, so question banks overlap but are not interchangeable.

NExT

The National Exit Test was notified in 2023 as a combined final MBBS, PG entrance and licensing exam, to replace the final MBBS exam, NEET-PG and FMGE. Implementation is deferred. In August 2026 the NMC chair indicated it may not arrive for a couple of years, and the format remains unconfirmed (proposed as a Step 1 MCQ plus a Step 2 clinical). Treat NExT as a watch item, not a plan.

1. Foreign graduates: check eligibility. Confirm your primary degree qualifies you to sit FMGE under NMC rules.
2. Register with NBEMS. Apply in the window for the June or December session.
3. Pass FMGE. 150 of 300.
4. Complete the compulsory internship. Apply to the NMC or State Council for provisional then permanent registration.
5. Then choose a PG route. NEET-PG, INI-CET or a state quota.

Nurses and midwives: recognition, plus a recruitment exam

Graduates of INC-recognised GNM and B.Sc Nursing programmes register with their State Nursing Council. No licensing exam is required. Midwifery is not registered separately; it forms part of the RN&RM qualification, or the Nurse Practitioner in Midwifery programme.

Foreign-trained nurses, including Indian nationals who studied overseas, need INC equivalency. The awarding university sends a transcript proforma, the applicant pays Rs 5,000, and an Equivalency Committee reviews it. There is no exam. A nursing exit or licentiate exam has been proposed and not implemented.

Dentists: NEET-MDS and FDST

BDS graduates register by qualification after internship. NEET-MDS is the postgraduate entry exam, with 240 MCQs (Part A 100, Part B 140, time-locked) in 3 hours and +4/-1 marking. In 2026, 30,389 candidates appeared and 18,244 qualified, per a careers site. Graduates of foreign dental courses, whether BDS, PG diploma or MDS, need the FDST under the DCI Screening Test Regulations 2009. NBEMS conducts it but applications go to the Dental Council of India. The format is computer-based MCQ; the 2026 NBEMS bulletin gives the details.

Pharmacists

D.Pharm graduates of PCI-approved institutions must pass DPEE before registering with a State Pharmacy Council. The format is expected to be computer-based MCQ, but we could not confirm the question count. B.Pharm and Pharm.D graduates register by qualification, without an exit exam.

Physiotherapists

The National Commission for Allied and Healthcare Professions (NCAHP) Act 2021 made registration mandatory, with periodic renewal, and regulations were issued in 2025-26. Registration is on the Allied and Healthcare Professionals Registry. There is no national exam. The route for foreign-trained physiotherapists is not yet defined, so check with NCAHP.

Exams in India at a glance

Language and recognition

All the national exams above are set in English. There is no language test for foreign-trained Indian citizens. Recognition, not language, is the usual obstacle: NMC rules decide whether a foreign degree qualifies for FMGE, and the INC and DCI have their own document checks. Because the rules are being rewritten around NExT, read the latest NMC and NBEMS notices before you commit to a timeline.

TriagePass is independent and is not affiliated with the NMC, NBEMS, AIIMS or any Indian council.

Last reviewed October 2026