India’s tuberculosis (TB) incidence — the number of new cases emerging each year — has dropped by 21 per cent, from 237 per lakh population in 2015 to 187 per lakh in 2024, according to the World Health Organisation’s Global TB Report 2025. This decline is almost twice the global rate, which stands at 12 per cent.

The Union Health Ministry credited this achievement to India’s innovative case-finding strategies, rapid adoption of new technologies, decentralisation of services and large-scale community mobilisation. These efforts have helped raise treatment coverage from 53 per cent in 2015 to over 92 per cent in 2024, with 26.18 lakh patients diagnosed out of an estimated 27 lakh cases.

As a result, the number of “missing cases” — those with TB who were not notified to the national progra

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