India, May 31 -- Union labour minister Mansukh Mandaviya on Saturday said the Centre would upgrade all hospitals of the Employees' State Insurance Corporations (ESIC) with 200 beds or more into full-fledged medical colleges, part of an ongoing expansion drive.

The government also proposes to reserve 40% of seats in these medical colleges for wards of employees with ESIC's health insurance cover, the minister said, inaugurating a 30-bed facility at Kala Amb in Himachal Pradesh.

The state-backed ESIC, which provides free, no-cash-ceiling healthcare to enrolled workers across the country, is in the process of setting up medical colleges in Mumbai's Andheri, Delhi's Basaidarapur, Guwahati, Indore, Jaipur, Ludhiana, Naroda-Bapunagar in Gujar...