♦ Union Minister of State for Health and Family Welfare, Anupriya Patel, inaugurated the India Innovation Summit – “Pioneering Solutions to End TB” at the Bharat Mandapam Convention Centre in Delhi on 18 March 2025. 

♦ The event comes as India’s National TB Elimination Program (NTEP) reaches a major milestone, with 26.07 lakh TB cases notified in 2024, the highest ever recorded.

♦ Since 2015, the incidence rate of TB has dropped by 17.7%, from 237 cases per lakh population to 195 in 2023, while TB-related deaths have decreased by 21.4%.

♦ The summit, jointly organized by the Department of Health Research (DHR), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), and the Central TB Division (CTD) of the Ministry of Health & Family Welfare, aims to fast-track India’s progress toward eliminating TB by 2025.