Budget 2026: Sitharaman announces ‘Bio Pharma Shakti’ - India’s ambitious plan to dominate next-gen drugs
&imwidth=600&imheight=450&format=webp&quality=medium "Budget 2026: Sitharaman announces ‘Bio Pharma Shakti’ - India’s ambitious plan to dominate next-gen drugs")
Indian Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman, Bio Pharma Shakti Photograph: (WION Web Desk)
Budget 2026: Sitharaman announces ‘Bio Pharma Shakti’ - India’s ambitious plan to dominate next-gen drugs
Indian Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday (Feb 1), during the Budget 2026-27 presentation, announced "Bio Pharma Shakti," a scheme which seeks to develop India as a "global bio-pharma manufacturing hub". For this purpose, she announced an outlay of Rs 10,000 crores over the next 5 years.
India to become a bio-pharma manufacturing hub in 5 years
Sitharaman, in her budget speech, announced a groundbreaking scheme titled "Bio Pharma Shakti" which she said will help develop India as a global bio-pharma manufacturing hub. Bio Pharma Shakti is aimed at building at making ecosystem for biopharma and biosimilars, she said.
The Indian FM announced a ₹10,000 crores over five years for the scheme. "This will build an ecosystem for domestic productions of biologics and biosimilars," she said.
Sitharaman noted that based on observation, it can be deduced that India's disease burden is observed to be shifting towards non-communicable diseases like diabetes, cancer and autoimmune diseases. "Biological medicines are key to longevity and quality of life at affordable costs," she noted. Among other announcements, she proposed scaling up manufacturing in strategic and frontier sectors and developing city economic regions.
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Atmarnirbharta in focus
In her initial remarks, Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman said that since her government assumed office, the Indian economic trajectory has been marked by fiscal discipline and sustained growth. She stressed that the government led by Prime Minister Narendra Modi has chosen action over ambivalence, and reform over rhetoric, keeping Atmanirbharta or self-reliance as a lodestar.
India's real GDP growth for 2026-27 is projected in the range of 6.8-7.2 per cent, reflecting sustained medium-term growth capacity amid a challenging global environment.
India's inflation rate hit a record low, with the average headline inflation from April to December 2025 at 1.7%, due to falling food and fuel prices. Moving forward, inflation is expected to remain mild, bolstered by positive supply conditions and the progressive effect of GST rate adjustments.
