MUMBAI, July 12 -- The state government has urged the Indian Nursing Council (INC) to make students with zero percentile in the Nursing CET eligible for admission to the BSc nursing course from 2026-27. The move aims to fill thousands of vacant seats in private nursing colleges and increase the number of trained nurses in the state's healthcare system. The medical education department's letter seeking relaxation of the minimum qualifying percentile was sent to the INC secretary in June, but has received no response so far. The government wants a decision before the admission process begins so that more students can participate from the very first round. Until now, students needed at least 50 percentile in the nursing CET to qualify. Last year, when only 14,479 of the 43,191 candidates were eligible because of the minimum percentile rule and 28,112 students were declared ineligible after three rounds of admission, the state requested the INC to permit zero-percentile students to be admitted at the final stage. However, because the INC did not reply, students secured admission to other courses. The government believes that many of these students could have filled vacant nursing seats....