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Health systems and research

How health care is organised, recorded and paid for, from digital health registries to the policy on health research.

Asked before

  1. Mains 2026 GS2: Should education be treated primarily as a welfare obligation of the state or as a strategic investment for building a globally competiti…
  2. Prelims 2024: With reference to the Pradhan Mantri Surakshit Matritva Abhiyan, consider the following statements: 1. This scheme guarantees a minimum p…
  3. Prelims 2024: With reference to the Pradhan Mantri Shram Yogi Maan-dhan (PM-SYM) Yojana, consider the following statements: 1. The entry age group for…
  4. Mains 2024 GS2: What are the aims and objects of recently passed and enforced, The Public Examination (Prevention of Unfair Means) Act, 2024? Whether Uni…
  5. Mains 2024 GS2: In a crucial domain like the public healthcare system the Indian State should play a vital role to contain the adverse impact of marketis…
  6. Prelims 2023: Consider the following statements in relation to Janani Suraksha Yojana: 1. It is a safe motherhood intervention of the State Health Depa…
  7. Prelims 2023: Consider the following statements in the context of interventions being undertaken under Anaemia Mukt Bharat Strategy: 1. It provides pro…
  8. Mains 2023 GS2: The crucial aspect of development process has been the inadequate attention paid to Human Resource Development in India. Suggest measures…

See all: Prelims 1 · Prelims 2 · Mains

Draft National Health Research Policy, 2026: six times the money, judged by impact

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StandardPrelims and Mains27 Jul 2026

What it is

  • Health research in India is funded and steered by the Department of Health Research and the Indian Council of Medical Research under a National Health Research Policy of 2011. Government spending on it is 0.024 per cent of gross domestic product, against a weighted average of 0.27 per cent in high income countries by the World Health Organization's count.
  • The draft of a new policy was released by the Department in the second week of July 2026 for public comment to 27 July.

What happened

  • The draft sets spending targets of 0.072 per cent of GDP by 2037 and 0.15 per cent by 2047, a sixfold rise that would still leave India below the rich country average.
  • It changes how scientists are judged: not by studies completed, papers published or grants won, but by contributions to clinical guidelines, public health programmes, policy, indigenous technologies and measurable health outcomes, through an expanded Impact of Research and Innovation Scale that the Council introduced in 2025.
  • It proposes a National Health Research Agenda set by disease burden and updated periodically, State research agendas aligned to it, a National Research Integrity Office, simpler ethics approvals for multicentre studies, shared access to laboratories and biobanks, responsible use of artificial intelligence, and a bigger role for medical colleges, private hospitals, start ups, industry, philanthropy and corporate social responsibility money.
  • Its priority list runs from tuberculosis, antimicrobial resistance and vector borne disease to cancer, mental health, anaemia, child malnutrition and maternal and neonatal mortality.

Why it matters

  • The dengue vaccine approved in the same month shows the gap the policy names: the Indian evidence on safety in the never infected does not exist, and no one is funded to produce it.
  • Judging research by impact rather than papers is the reform every science policy promises and none has delivered; the integrity office is the part that gives it teeth.
  • A sixfold rise sounds large and lands at 0.15 per cent of GDP, which is the honest scale of the ambition.

Exam lens

  • Prelims: the draft updates the policy of 2011; government health research spending 0.024 per cent of GDP; targets 0.072 per cent by 2037 and 0.15 per cent by 2047; a National Health Research Agenda and a National Research Integrity Office; comments closed 27 July 2026.
  • Mains: whether judging researchers by impact can work, and what a health research agenda should put first.

Asked before: Mains 2021 GS2 · Mains 2024 GS4

Show the questions
  1. Mains 2021 GS2: "Besides being a moral imperative of a Welfare State, primary health structure is a necessary precondition for sustainable development." Analyze.
  2. Mains 2024 GS4: Dr. Srinivasan is a senior scientist working for a reputed biotechnology company known for its cutting-edge research in pharmaceuticals. Dr. Srinivasan is heading a research team working on a new drug aimed at treating a rapidly spreading variant of a new viral infectious disease. The disease has been rapidly spreading across the world and the cases reported in the country are increasing. There is huge pressure on Dr. Srinivasan's team to expedite the trials for the drug as there is significant market for it, and the company wants to get the first-mover advantage in the market. During a team meeting, some senior team members suggest some shortcut for expediting the clinical trials for the drug and for getting the requisite approvals. These include manipulating data to exclude some negative outcomes and selectively reporting positive results, foregoing the process of informed consent and using compounds already patented by a rival company, rather than developing one's own component. Dr. Srinivasan is not comfortable taking such shortcuts, at the same time he realises meeting the targets is impossible without using these means. (a) What would you do in such a situation? (b) Examine your options and consequences in the light of the ethical questions involved. (c) How can data ethics and drug ethics save humanity at large in such a scenario?

Connects to

Sources
  • ThePrint, 13 July 2026, “India plans health research overhaul: 6x spends by 2047, scientists' assessment by real-world impact”

Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission: the Unified Health Interface, the Drug Registry and Aarogya Setu 2.0

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StandardPrelims and Mains29 Jun 2026

What it is

  • The Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM), run by the National Health Authority (NHA), builds the digital public infrastructure of Indian health care: identities for patients, registries of providers and a consent based exchange of records.
  • The Unified Health Interface (UHI) is its service layer: an open network with common protocols, so that a patient and a provider need not be on the same app to find and transact with each other.
  • A request from any UHI enabled app goes through the ABDM Gateway, run by the NHA, to registered providers; its four principles are interoperability, fair discoverability, verification and open protocols.

What happened

  • On 29 June 2026 the Union Health Minister launched UHI with blood bank discovery (through e-RaktKosh), PM-JAY hospital search, Jan Aushadhi Kendra discovery, ambulance booking and in person doctor consultations.
  • The Drug Registry became ABDM's fourth core registry. It uses SNOMED CT codes so the same medicine is not entered under different names across systems, and lists over 1.23 lakh branded drugs, over 10,000 generics and over 29,000 substances.
  • Aarogya Setu, built as a COVID 19 contact tracing app and downloaded about 20 crore times, passed from the Ministry of Electronics and Information Technology to the NHA and relaunched as a Personal Health Record app.
  • C-DAC's eSushrut@clinic, a light hospital management system for small clinics, was launched at about ₹299 a month, because full systems are too costly for them and slow ABDM adoption.
ABDM registryWhat it identifies
Ayushman Bharat Health Account (ABHA)Individuals
Healthcare Professional RegistryDoctors and other health professionals
Health Facility RegistryHospitals, clinics and other facilities
Drug RegistryMedicines, by brand, generic, substance and manufacturer

Why it matters

  • Open protocols end platform lock in and give small and rural providers the same visibility as large chains, as the Unified Payments Interface did for payments.
  • Verification through the registries means only credentialed doctors and facilities appear, which protects patients from unregistered practitioners.
  • A single code for each medicine makes e-prescriptions, pharmacovigilance and stock tracking possible across systems.
  • The weak link is adoption at the small clinic, which is why a cheap, light system matters as much as the protocol.

Exam lens

  • Prelims: ABDM is run by the NHA; ABHA and the three other registries; UHI as the service layer; SNOMED CT; Aarogya Setu moved to the NHA; eSushrut@clinic by C-DAC.
  • Mains: Can open protocols do for health care what the Unified Payments Interface did for payments? Discuss.

Asked before: Prelims 2022 · Mains 2018 GS2

Show the questions
  1. Prelims 2022: With reference to Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission, consider the following statements: 1. Private and public hospitals must adopt it. 2. As it aims to achieve universal health coverage, every citizen of India should be part of it ultimately. 3. It has seamless portability across the country. Which of the statements given above is/are correct?
  2. Mains 2018 GS2: Appropriate local community-level healthcare intervention is a prerequisite to achieve 'Health for All' in India. Explain.

Connects to

Sources
  • PIB, 29 June 2026
  • The Hindu, 27 June 2026