TB Elimination

India has run a national TB programme for decades, but the decisive change since 2014 has been in finding cases rather than waiting for them. In 2014 there were 13,583 designated microscopy centres and only 127 drug-resistant TB treatment centres. The National Strategic Plan for TB Elimination 2017–2025 set out a Detect–Treat–Prevent–Build framework, and at the Delhi End TB Summit in March 2018 the Prime Minister pledged a TB-free India by 2025, five years ahead of the global target. Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana began in April 2018 with ₹500 a month for every notified patient. In 2020 the Revised National Tuberculosis Control Programme was renamed the National TB Elimination Programme. Notifications climbed from 18.28 lakh in 2017 to 24.05 lakh in 2019, fell to 18.06 lakh in 2020 as COVID-19 disrupted services, and recovered to 24.22 lakh by 2022.

The 100-Day TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan, launched on 7 December 2024 in 347 high-priority districts across 33 States and Union Territories, was the programme's most intensive case-finding drive. By the time it was reviewed on 13 May 2025 it had screened 12.97 crore vulnerable people and detected 7.19 lakh TB cases, of which 2.85 lakh had no symptoms and would ordinarily have gone undetected. More than 1 lakh new Ni-kshay Mitras joined during the campaign, which was then extended to every district in the country. Cumulatively, since 7 December 2024, over 20 crore people had been screened and more than 28 lakh TB patients diagnosed by March 2026. Notifications for the full year 2024 reached 26.18 lakh, the highest the programme has recorded, with 9.50 lakh of them — 36% — coming from the private sector.

A person with symptoms can be screened free at any public health facility, including the network of Ayushman Arogya Mandirs. Testing rests on 25,222 designated microscopy centres and 9,826 rapid molecular laboratories (CBNAAT and Truenat), alongside 107 culture and drug susceptibility testing laboratories and over 500 AI-enabled hand-held chest X-ray units for community screening. Every case, public or private, is registered on the Ni-kshay portal, which also runs the direct benefit transfer. Drugs are free, including the shorter all-oral BPaLM regimen (bedaquiline, pretomanid, linezolid, moxifloxacin) approved in September 2024, which cuts drug-resistant TB treatment from 9–12 months to 6 months; more than 15,000 MDR/RR-TB patients had been started on it by March 2026. Nutrition support of ₹1,000 a month reaches patients by DBT, and Ni-kshay Mitras — individuals, companies, panchayats and institutions — adopt patients and their households with food baskets.

The stated national goal remains ending TB by 2025, and the ministry's own documents now refer to a National Strategic Plan for TB (2025–27), so the work continues past the target date. Treatment success among notified patients rose from 83% in 2021 to 89% in 2024, and stood at 90% for January–October 2025 against a global average of 88%. For January–October 2025, 22.64 lakh cases had been notified; a full-year figure for 2025 has not yet been published, which is why the chart ends at 2024. Certification is moving down to the village: 46,118 Gram Panchayats were awarded TB-free certification for the year 2024. Newer tools being scaled include AI reading of chest X-rays, acoustic screening of coughs and predictive analytics to flag patients at risk of a poor outcome. India still carries the world's largest TB burden, and the programme's own framing is that sustaining the decline depends on continuing to find cases early.