What happened
In a Lok Sabha written reply, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stated that the Department of Health Research (DHR) budget allocation is 0.012% of GDP and that the DHR budget has increased over time along with new programmes/initiatives intended to improve the competitiveness and accessibility of health research grants.
Background and earlier position
The Government indicated that the DHR allocation has already grown substantially from an earlier level reported for 2014–15 Revised Estimates (RE), and it positioned the recent changes as part of a broader effort to expand the health-research funding ecosystem. The reply emphasised budgeting growth and grant-system rationalisation rather than a one-off programme.
What changed now
The Government reported two linked changes in the health research funding ecosystem: (1) an increase in DHR budgetary allocation for 2026–27 as compared with the 2025–26 Revised Estimates, and (2) rationalisation and expansion of Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) intramural and extramural grant architecture so that support is calibrated to the scale, maturity, risk and translational stage of each research proposal. The reply also stated that ICMR initiated follow-up grants to build on leads from initial research grants, with details hosted on the ICMR ePMS portal.
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