Private medical colleges emerged as the primary beneficiaries after the NEET PG cut-off was lowered in 2023. When the qualifying percentile was brought down to zero, a significantly larger share of admissions below the original cut-off went to private institutions rather than government ones.

Nearly two-thirds of candidates who secured seats despite scoring below the initial eligibility threshold were admitted to private colleges. The trend was even stronger in clinical branches, where close to 85% of such seats were taken up in private medical institutions. In contrast, government colleges accounted for fewer than 500 clinical specialty seats filled by candidates below the original cut-off.

This imbalance is notable given that clinical programmes in private colleges also carry the highest tuition costs.

The reduction in cut-off appeared to benefit general category candidates the most. They made up more than half of all admissions among those who fell below the first cut-off mark. Candidates from the OBC category formed roughly a quarter of this group, while SC and ST candidates together accounted for under one-fifth.

The disparity widened further in clinical courses at private colleges, where around seven in ten admissions below the cut-off were from the general category, and about one-fifth were OBC candidates. Government colleges showed a more even distribution, with general category candidates comprising about one-third of such admissions and OBC candidates slightly higher than that.

An analysis of postgraduate admissions in 2023 helps explain the impact of setting the cut-off at zero percentile, equivalent to a negative score out of 800. This step was taken after a large number of postgraduate seats remained unfilled.

Data from the National Medical Commission’s consolidated admission list shows that the lowest score admitted was zero, achieved by a general category candidate. In total, 69 candidates with fewer than 50 marks secured admissions, including candidates from general, OBC, SC, and ST categories.

However, the available data provides an incomplete picture. The admission list, released in mid-June 2024, includes information for only about 43,900 seats. Official figures indicate that more than 54,800 postgraduate seats were available in 2023, suggesting that details for over 10,000 seats are missing.

The dataset excludes admissions from centrally funded institutions such as AIIMS, PGI Chandigarh, and JIPMER, as well as a large number of Diplomate of National Board (DNB) seats, further limiting the scope of the analysis.