178 seats added to NEET PG Round 2: what changed, and should you refresh your choices?

MCC added 178 seats to the NEET PG Round 2 matrix on 13 November and removed 6. Of the new seats, 161 sit at a single institution: Sri Venkateswaraa Medical College, Hospital and Research Centre in Puducherry, a deemed university. The other 17 are All India Quota seats at Vijayanagar Institute of Medical Sciences (VIMS), Bellary.

Choice locking closes at 11:55 pm on 15 November, so these Round 2 new seats matter now. Here is what was added, what the clear and virtual vacancy lists tell you, and whether you should reopen your choice list.

What MCC changed on 13 November

MCC's Notice No. 10 says the updated matrix "will be considered for seat processing". We read the full institute-wise list.

Source: MCC Notice No. 10 dated 13.11.2026. The removals were made on information from NBEMS.

The 161 Puducherry seats, branch by branch

Source: MCC Notice No. 10, 13.11.2026, analysed by Career Paathshala. All 161 seats are listed in the unreserved (UR) category.

Two things follow. These are paid deemed seats, so you need to have paid the deemed-university fee (Rs 5,000 plus a Rs 2 lakh refundable deposit) to fill them. And the NRI seats are open only to candidates with valid NRI documents.

Self-financed meritNRI

Medicine

14

5

Surgery

19

0

Anaesthesia

17

0

OBG

9

6

Paediatrics

9

4

Orthopaedics

12

0

Radiology

4

5

Dermatology

4

4

Ophthalmology

8

0

ENT

7

0

Values in seats

Source: MCC Notice No. 10, 13 Nov 2026, analysed by Career Paathshala.

The bigger picture: 3,678 seats arrived before Round 2

The 178 seats are only the latest batch. MCC's "Newly added seats, Round 2" list, posted on 12 November, runs to 176 pages. Our count of that list:

• 3,678 seats across 324 institutions.
• By quota: All India 1,964; deemed self-financed 1,210; Armed Forces Medical Services 199; DNB quota 155; NRI 136.
• Top branches: General Medicine 302, General Surgery 258, Pathology 254, Anaesthesiology 250, OBG 233, Orthopaedics 229, Paediatrics 226.
• The list includes IIT Kharagpur's first 12 MD seats.

Source: MCC "Newly added seats Round 2 (MD/MS/DNB)" list, 12 Nov 2026, counted by Career Paathshala. Totals are our count of the PDF and may differ slightly from MCC's own figures.

A separate notice on 11 November removed 10 AIQ seats at Dr B R Ambedkar State Institute of Medical Sciences, Mohali, and added Armed Forces quota seats at INHS Asvini, Mumbai. Armed Forces seats are for service-sponsored candidates only, so most civilians can ignore them.

IIT Kharagpur's MD seats

IIT Kharagpur is the first IIT to offer NMC-approved MD courses, with training at its Dr B C Roy Multi-Speciality Medical Research Centre and Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Super-Speciality Hospital. The category split matters more than the headline:

If you are in the Open category, the two Radiology seats will close at a very high rank, and there is no Open seat in Medicine. This is a first batch, so there is no closing-rank history and no residents yet to ask. Treat it as a research-heavy option and ask about the hospital's patient load before you rank it high.

178

Seats added on 13 Nov

6

Seats removed on 13 Nov

3,678

Newly added seats in MCC's 12 Nov list

~12,150

Clear vacancies (13 Nov list)

~14,530

Virtual vacancies (13 Nov list)

Source: MCC notices and seat lists, 12-13 Nov 2026; counts by Career Paathshala, approximate.

Clear vacancy vs virtual vacancy: how to read the lists

The PG Information Bulletin 2026 defines both:

• Clear vacancy: a seat that was not allotted in Round 1. If you rank it and your merit is enough, you can get it.
• Virtual vacancy: a seat allotted in Round 1 to someone who chose to float for an upgrade. You can fill it, but you get it only if that person is upgraded and vacates it.

MCC updated both lists on 13 November. Our count: the clear vacancy list holds about 12,150 seats, and the virtual vacancy list about 14,530 seats. In General Medicine alone, there are about 850 clear and 1,190 virtual vacancies; in Anaesthesiology about 830 and 1,140.

Source: MCC updated clear and virtual vacancy lists, Round 2, 13 Nov 2026, counted by Career Paathshala. Counts are approximate.

The practical lesson: virtual vacancies are real chances, not decoration. Every float candidate who moves up frees a seat for someone below. Rank good virtual-vacancy seats in the order you truly want them.

Branch	Seats	Categories
Radiodiagnosis	2	Open 2
Biochemistry	2	Open 1, OBC 1
Community Medicine	2	Open 1, OBC 1
Pathology	2	Open 1, OBC 1
Physiology	2	EWS 1, SC 1
General Medicine	2	SC 1, ST 1

Source: MCC 'Newly added seats Round 2' list, 12 Nov 2026.

Should you refresh your choice list?

Use these rules:

1. Add VIMS Bellary seats if you would join a Karnataka govt college in that branch. They are AIQ seats at govt fees, though in small numbers.
2. Add the Puducherry deemed seats only after a fee check. Our database puts typical deemed fees at about Rs 40 lakh a year for MD Medicine and Rs 30 lakh a year for Anaesthesia. Over three years that is Rs 0.9-1.2 crore before hostel costs, against roughly Rs 27 lakh a govt resident might earn in stipend at Rs 75,000 a month. Confirm Sri Venkateswaraa's 2026 fee on its own fee sheet; we have not verified it.
3. Do not delete good older choices to make room. Slot each new seat where it belongs in your true order of preference.
4. Remove any seat you would not join. Skipping an allotted Round 2 seat forfeits your deposit: Rs 25,000 for UR/EWS AIQ, Rs 10,000 for reserved categories and Rs 2 lakh for deemed.
5. Check the removals. If you had GMC Osmanabad Surgery or the two removed DNB seats on your list, they will not be allotted.

On the Nachiket Bhatia Show, doctors warned against taking Rs 2-3 crore loans for a private MD Medicine seat when a govt DM later costs a fraction. That advice applies to any expensive new deemed seat. Volume and faculty matter more than a fresh approval letter.

What this means for you

• Rank under about 20,000 in clinical branches: The 178 seats change little for you. Focus on virtual vacancies in govt colleges and the strongest DNB centres.
• Rank 40,000 to 1,50,000 and open to paid seats: The Puducherry seats add 137 self-financed options across 20 branches. Work out the three-year cost first, then decide.
• Open category hoping for IIT Kharagpur Radiology: Two seats only. Fill it if you want it, but keep realistic choices below it.
• NRI-eligible candidates: 24 new NRI seats in Medicine, OBG, Paediatrics, Radiology and Dermatology. Check your NRI documents are in order.
• Reserved categories: VIMS Bellary added OBC, SC, ST and EWS seats in Medicine and Surgery, including one OBC PwD Surgery seat.

Unsure whether a new seat belongs on your list? Compare the branch on Know Your Branch, or book a counselling call with our team before 15 November.

Change log: Published 14 Nov 2026