The Post Graduate Medical Education Regulations 2023 (PGMER-2023)[1] came into force on 1 January 2024 and reshaped how the postgraduate thesis is assessed. If you joined MD/MS in 2024 or later, these are the rules that govern you.
Thesis is mandatory and carries marks
Regulation 5.2(ii) keeps the thesis compulsory for every broad- and super-specialty postgraduate. It is now evaluated as part of the practical and viva examination and carries 20 marks, roughly 5% of your clinical assessment, judged by an external examiner from outside the state.
Acceptance is no longer a gate to the exam
NMC's clarifications of April, June and August 2024 confirmed that prior acceptance of the thesis is not a prerequisite to appear in the final examination. Submission still flows through your Head of Department and Dean, and universities still set their own internal deadlines, commonly six months before the exam.
One research activity before finals
Regulation 5.2(x) requires every postgraduate to complete at least one research activity, a poster or oral presentation at a state-level or higher conference or a first-author paper, along with a Research Methodology course, GCP training and e-logbook entries.
Plagiarism thresholds
NMC publishes no national percentage; universities follow the UGC 2018[3] convention of similarity below 10%, with a Turnitin, iThenticate, Drillbit or Urkund report attached to the submission. MDThesis ships an MDSoftune word-level uniqueness report with every draft, so similarity is visible while a chapter is still in draft rather than at submission. We do not operate the checker your institution runs and cannot predict the figure it will produce.
- Start your synopsis in the first three months
- Obtain Institutional Ethics Committee[5] approval before collecting any data
- Register prospective interventional studies on CTRI
- Keep your e-logbook current; examiners ask