Health-Care Budget Overview 2026
The 2026 health-care budget reflects aggressive allocation in certain sectors, though it falls short of expectations for significant health-care spending as a percentage of GDP.
- Total allocation: Over ₹1.05 lakh crore, a 10% increase over the previous year's revised estimates.
- Health budget as a percentage of GDP: Approximately 0.26%.
- Health budget as a percentage of total government expenditure: Approximately 1.9%.
Key Initiatives and Allocations
Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman introduced significant initiatives, including the Biopharma SHAKTI scheme:
- Biopharma SHAKTI scheme: ₹10,000 crore initiative to transform India into a manufacturing hub for biologics and biosimilars over five years.
- Clinical Trial Infrastructure: Network of 1,000 accredited clinical trial sites.
- Establishment of three new National Institutes of Pharmaceutical Education and Research (NIPER).
- Modernization of seven existing NIPER units.
- Establishment of a second NIMHANS campus in North India and two upgraded national mental health institutes.
Training and Care Affordability
- Training Goals: Train one lakh allied health professionals and 1.5 lakh care workers for elderly care over the next five years.
- Affordability Measures:
- Exemption of 17 cancer medicines and rare disease treatments from customs and import duties.
- Reduction of tax collected at source on medical and educational remittances from 5% to 2%.
Criticism and Concerns
Public health activists have criticized the government's refusal to increase health-care allocation to 2.5% of GDP by 2025, as outlined in the 2017 National Health Policy.
- National Health Mission: Drop in funding despite consistent fund utilization.
- Fiscal devolution has enabled states to invest more in health, but concerns about reduced central funding potentially leading to uneven health-care improvements persist.
