Budget 2026: India’s pharma leap, BioPharma SHAKTI gets ₹10K cr; 1,000 clinical trial sites planned

Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman on Sunday announced a Rs 10,000 crore outlay for the Bio Pharma Shakti scheme for biologics and biosimilar drugs to make India a global bio-pharma hub. Presenting the Budget 2026-27, she said these bio medicines would help the country tackle the growing burden of non-communicable diseases like diabetes. The Finance Minister also said that the government would create 1 lakh Allied Health Professionals (AHPs) in 10 disciplines like optometry, radiology, and anaesthesia over the next five years as part of the Budget proposals.