Overview
- Union Health Minister J.P. Nadda unveiled the 2025–29 plan in New Delhi on November 18, aligning the rollout with World Antimicrobial Awareness Week.
- The strategy prioritizes expanded AMR surveillance, upgraded microbiology capacity, stricter infection prevention in hospitals, regulatory curbs on misuse, and support for innovation platforms such as the India AMR Innovation Hub.
- Each participating ministry will submit an implementation roadmap that engages private providers, technical bodies, industry, NGOs and international partners under a coordinated One Health approach.
- Nadda warned that resistant infections threaten surgeries, cancer care and other critical treatments, underscoring concerns over the widespread overuse and misuse of antibiotics.
- Recent WHO-linked data cited in the launch show one in six lab-confirmed bacterial infections are antibiotic-resistant, with the heaviest burdens in Southeast Asia and the Eastern Mediterranean, and projections warn of up to 10 million deaths annually by 2050 without stronger action.