Archive · 22 Jan 2026
India to revamp disease outbreak response
India is planning to make big changes to how it handles disease outbreaks.
The government wants to set up new offices and labs in different parts of the country to make it easier and faster to detect and stop diseases.
They also want to focus more on big cities where lots of people live.
This is because there have been more outbreaks of diseases like Nipah and Zika, and the current system is not enough to handle them all.
The plan includes setting up new high-containment labs and special units in cities to help with sanitation and overcrowding.
The goal is to make India better prepared for future pandemics and to reduce the number of people who get sick.
India plans to revamp the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) by setting up five new regional offices, 20 new metropolitan surveillance units, and 27 new state regional centres.
The government aims to decentralize outbreak response and reduce diagnostic delays by setting up 10 new biosafety level-3 (BSL-3) laboratories.
The plan includes setting up special units to handle health security in crowded cities by focusing on sanitation and overcrowding.
The NCDC will be responsible for frontline service delivery and field surveillance, while the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) will focus on medical research.
The current PM-ABHIM scheme will end in the current fiscal (FY26), and the government is considering new budgetary allocations for disease surveillance and lab maintenance from FY27.
- Who
- Union government, National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC), Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)
- What
- Revamp of disease outbreak response, decentralization of outbreak response, setting up new regional offices and laboratories
- When
- Upcoming Union budget, FY27
- Where
- India
- Why
- To tackle increasing infectious disease outbreaks and reduce diagnostic delays
- New regional offices
- 5
- New metropolitan surveillance units
- 20
- New state regional centres
- 27
- New BSL-3 laboratories
- 10
- Current BSL-3 laboratories
- 35
- Current BSL-4 laboratory
- 1 (Pune)
- PM-ABHIM scheme budget
- ₹64,180 crore
- Current bio-safety labs
- 237
