Data from the Medical Counselling Committee (MCC) shows that over 18,000 post-graduate medical seats were left vacant across India in the 2025-26 NEET-PG admissions. Maharashtra, Karnataka, and Tamil Nadu top the list with each state having over 2,000 empty seats in private and NRI quotas. The Health Ministry released this data after Round-2 counselling was completed. In response, the National Board of Examination and Medical Sciences (NBEMS) lowered the qualifying percentile cut-off to zero for reserved categories in the third round. The total PG medical seats nearly doubled from 40,858 in 2020 to about 80,291 in 2025, including DNB and diploma seats. Vacant seats are highest in subjects like microbiology, pathology, biochemistry, forensic medicine, and pharmacology. Meanwhile, general medicine, radio-diagnosis, surgery, dermatology, obstetrics and gynaecology, and paediatrics remain the most popular. NEET-PG 2025 results were declared on August 19, 2025. The exam had over 2,42,000 candidates and was held across 1,052 centres in 301 cities. Rohan Krishnan, chief patron of FAIIMS Doctors’ Association, said, "While lowering NEET PG qualifying percentile destroys the credibility of this exam it is the private colleges fee structure that begins at 20 lakh and goes up to 4 crore that is the main deterrent and reason for vacant seats." A senior doctor added issues like the high cost of education, reluctance to choose non-clinical subjects, poor teaching staff, infrastructure, patient load, and low stipends also keep seats vacant. Addressing these is vital to filling NEET PG seats in the future.