Convening India's brightest minds: The Bharat Life Sciences Award’s Innovation Summit to spotlight life sciences

India stands at a defining moment in its life sciences journey. Having built formidable strengths across pharmaceuticals, vaccines, scientific research, and technology, the country now has an opportunity to move beyond capability creation towards innovation-led leadership. The next chapter will be shaped by India's ability to translate scientific discoveries into real-world impact, connect research with industry, leverage emerging technologies, and build the conditions that enable ideas to scale. Achieving this ambition will require deeper collaboration across academia, industry, government, investors, and innovators to accelerate the path from breakthrough science to transformative healthcare solutions. India can strengthen its innovation ecosystem while playing a leading role in shaping the future of global health.

It is against this backdrop that Lilly India, in partnership with FICCI, presents the inaugural Bharat Life Sciences Award (BLSA) 2026, a first-of-its-kind national platform scheduled for 1st October 2026 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Convened in consultation with the Office of the Principal Scientific Adviser to the Government of India, the Department of Pharmaceuticals, and Startup India, Department for Promotion of Industry and Internal Trade (DPIIT), the Bharat Life Sciences Award is supported by the Biotechnology Industry Research Assistance Council (BIRAC) as Knowledge Partner and Invest India as Strategy Partner.


The initiative is further supported by the Indian Drug Manufacturers' Association (IDMA), the Organisation of Pharmaceutical Producers of India (OPPI), the Indian Pharmaceutical Alliance (IPA), the U.S.-India Business Council (USIBC), and the U.S.-India Strategic Partnership Forum (USISPF), with Grant Thornton Bharat serving as Process Advisor.

The initiative seeks to create a credible national platform that celebrates scientific excellence across the life sciences ecosystem. The event will bring together senior policymakers, industry leaders, innovators, academia, and researchers to recognise outstanding contributions that advance scientific research, healthcare innovation, and ecosystem development.

The Innovation Summit, a key pillar of the Bharat Life Sciences Award (BLSA), will bring together leaders and experts from across sectors to discuss the next phase of India’s life sciences ecosystem. The summit will explore what it takes to translate promising ideas into real-world impact, spanning research and development, manufacturing, investment and commercial application.

The Summit aims to foster meaningful collaboration and advance a shared vision for the future of India's life sciences sector. As the country progresses towards the vision of Viksit Bharat 2047, the life sciences sector will play an increasingly important role in strengthening healthcare resilience, driving economic growth, advancing scientific leadership, and enhancing national competitiveness.

The inaugural edition of the Summit will feature three high-level thematic sessions focused on critical pillars of India's life sciences ecosystem.

● Advancing India's life sciences manufacturing ecosystem

India has established significant pharmaceutical manufacturing capacity and emerged as a major global supplier. The next opportunity is to convert this scale into quality and innovation-led global leadership. This session will explore the future of pharmaceutical and biologics manufacturing, CDMO (Contract Development and Manufacturing Organization) models, and specialised talent, while examining what India must strengthen further in quality, reliability, and innovation to translate today's momentum into sustained investment and long-term leadership.

● AI-accelerated drug discovery: Building India into a global discovery nation

India has a historic opportunity to redefine its role in the global pharmaceutical industry, from being the world's pharmacy for generics to becoming a leading hub for AI-enabled, data-driven drug discovery. Drawing on its strengths in technology, scientific talent, and data, this session will examine how India can accelerate discovery, strengthen pharmaceutical R&D, and build globally competitive innovation capabilities.

● Advancing vaccine and infectious disease platforms

India's manufacturing strength has made it a major global vaccine supplier. The next ambition is to advance platform-level innovation. This session will explore opportunities and challenges across India's innovation pipeline and examine next-generation technologies, including mRNA and bioconjugation, alongside the regulatory, financing, and partnership frameworks required to accelerate development and enable India to develop and scale innovative platforms for global health.

Together, these sessions will connect policy, science, technology, investment and enterprise around a shared ambition: to move India's life sciences ecosystem from capacity to innovation, from execution to origination, and from participation in global value chains to helping shape them.

The Innovation Summit will be held on 1 October 2026 at Vigyan Bhawan, New Delhi.

Readers can be part of the conversation shaping the future of India’s life sciences sector by selecting their preferred session and registering for the summit.

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