The Department of Health Research, under the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, has released the draft National Health Research Policy 2026, setting out a fresh roadmap to strengthen India’s health research landscape as the country works toward its Viksit Bharat 2047 goals.
The draft moves away from treating research as scattered projects and instead frames it as an integrated national system. It proposes a new National Health Research Agenda to steer funding and priorities toward pressing health needs, equity gaps, and emerging fields such as digital health, AI in medicine, gene therapy, and climate-linked illness. A three-tier governance model is outlined, led at the top by a National Health Research Stewardship Committee, with the Department of Health Research as coordinator and the Indian Council of Medical Research providing scientific direction.
The policy also pushes for streamlined funding processes, expanded research infrastructure, stronger ethical safeguards, and broader ways of measuring research impact beyond publications alone — including clinical, policy, and community outcomes. Public feedback on the draft is currently being invited before finalisation.
Written By: Sayan Das
Graphics by: Pramit Hazra
