India will miss its 2025 TB ‘elimination’ target.

• Prime Minister Narendra Modi set an ambitious goal of “eliminating” TB by 2025, five years ahead of the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) deadline set for 2030.
• The SDG targets for 2030 include a 90% reduction in TB deaths and 80% reduction in TB incidence compared to 2015.
• According to the WHO Global TB Report 2024 and the India TB Report 2024, India will not meet the 2025 milestones set by the WHO End TB Strategy.
• The TB incidence rate in India in 2015 was 237 per 1,000 population, and the mortality rate was 28 per 1,000 population in 2015.
• The WHO report shows a reduction in the TB incidence rate by 18% between 2015 and 2023, while the total number of TB deaths was only 24%.
• India has not met the 2020 milestones of the End TB Strategy for both TB incidence and deaths.
• Despite slow progress, India achieved a “noteworthy” 17.7% decline in TB incidence from 2015 to 2023, over twice the global average decline of 8.3%.