Is an MBBS a recognised qualification in India?

Yes, when awarded by an institution recognised for it. The National Medical Commission maintains the list of recognised qualifications and of the institutions permitted to award each; an MBBS from a college that was not recognised for the course in that year is not a recognised qualification, and a registering body can refuse to enter it on the register.

Is a foreign MD the same as an Indian MD?

Usually not. Many countries award an "MD" as the primary medical degree, equivalent to the Indian MBBS; the Indian MD is a postgraduate specialist degree taken after the MBBS. A doctor who trained abroad and holds a foreign MD as their only degree is a general physician, not a specialist, and the register entry will show the degree as the primary qualification.

Can someone practise medicine in India with a degree other than the MBBS?

Modern medicine, no: registration with a state medical council requires the MBBS or a recognised equivalent primary degree. Other systems have their own primary degrees — the BDS for dentistry, the BAMS, BUMS and BHMS for Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy — and their own registers, and each licenses practice of that system only.

Qualifications · Primary degrees · facts checked 25 Sep 2026

What an MBBS means on a doctor's profile

The MBBS is the primary medical degree in India — the one that puts a doctor on the medical register. What it is, what it is not, and who here holds it.

The MBBS is the qualification that makes someone a doctor of modern medicine in India. It is a university degree of four and a half years of study followed by a compulsory rotating internship of one year, taught under the National Medical Commission's Graduate Medical Education Regulations (the current set is dated 2023) and entered through NEET-UG. A graduate registers provisionally with a state medical council for the internship and permanently after it; that permanent registration is what the Indian Medical Register records, and the MBBS is the qualification recorded against it.

Two things the MBBS is not. It is not a specialist qualification: an MBBS holder is a general physician, and the postgraduate degrees — MD, MS, DNB — are what make a specialist. And it is not the only route onto the register: a doctor who qualified abroad sits the screening test and registers on that basis, and the register may then show a foreign primary degree (an MD from a Russian or Chinese university, say) that is equivalent to the MBBS rather than to the Indian postgraduate MD of the same name.

On this site the MBBS is recorded on the great majority of modern-medicine profiles, usually as the first qualification in the list. Where a profile records no primary degree at all, the page says so rather than assuming one.

How to check whether a doctor holds an MBBS

Read the register entryA doctor's record on the Indian Medical Register names the qualification the state medical council recorded at registration, and further qualifications where the doctor has had them added. If the doctor says they hold an MBBS and the register shows only the primary degree, the MBBS has not been registered — which is common and not by itself a warning, but it does mean the register cannot confirm it.
Check the college was recognised for the courseThe NMC's College and Course Search lists which institutions are recognised for which courses. an MBBS from a college not recognised for it on the year in question is a qualification the NMC does not recognise, whatever the certificate says.
Ask the awarding body when it mattersUniversities verify degrees on request, usually for a fee; a hospital credentialing a doctor does this, and a patient can ask whether it has been done. On this site a qualification is marked verified only when it has been checked against the awarding body and the date is shown; otherwise it is marked as supplied.

Measured on this site

21,778 doctors record an MBBS

6,346 of them (29%) have the qualification checked against the awarding body; 6,323 record the year it was awarded, from 1922 to 2025. The rest are recorded as supplied. Counts are read from the live database and refresh hourly.

Awarding institutions most often recorded

R.G.U.H.S · 579
U.D.Ahilya · 515
U.Bhopal · 443
U.Jiwaji · 408
U.R.Durga · 342
U.Rajasthan · 246

Specialities they practise

Where they practise

Questions people ask

Is an MBBS a recognised qualification in India?: Yes, when awarded by an institution recognised for it. The National Medical Commission maintains the list of recognised qualifications and of the institutions permitted to award each; an MBBS from a college that was not recognised for the course in that year is not a recognised qualification, and a registering body can refuse to enter it on the register.
Is a foreign MD the same as an Indian MD?: Usually not. Many countries award an "MD" as the primary medical degree, equivalent to the Indian MBBS; the Indian MD is a postgraduate specialist degree taken after the MBBS. A doctor who trained abroad and holds a foreign MD as their only degree is a general physician, not a specialist, and the register entry will show the degree as the primary qualification.
Can someone practise medicine in India with a degree other than the MBBS?: Modern medicine, no: registration with a state medical council requires the MBBS or a recognised equivalent primary degree. Other systems have their own primary degrees — the BDS for dentistry, the BAMS, BUMS and BHMS for Ayurveda, Unani and Homoeopathy — and their own registers, and each licenses practice of that system only.

On this site

Every profile lists its qualifications as supplied and says which of them have been checked against the awarding body and when. Where none has, the profile says so.

Browse doctors

General information about medical qualifications in India, checked against the sources listed on 25 Sep 2026. Not advice about your situation. Errors can be reported through the corrections process.