This article reports that India's medical profession is in a crisis. For every 10,000 people in India there are only six doctors, compared with nearly 55 in the United States and nearly 21 in Canada. The problem is likely to get worse before it gets better. Professors are leaving medical schools for better-paying jobs in private hospitals and in the pharmaceutical industry, forcing the schools to cut the size of their programs. Students who would have studied medicine a generation ago are pursuing more-lucrative careers in the technical sector. The doctor shortage illustrates how government regulation and bureaucracy sometimes make it more difficult for India to meet the challenges that come with rapid economic growth. Regulatory hurdles to the establishment of private medical schools have limited the opportunities to train for careers in medicine, prompting would-be doctors to go abroad, despite a boom in private health care. Some students opt out of the field entirely.