The 2026 Economic Survey just dropped, and honestly? It’s a bit of a mixed bag. While the government is busy taking victory laps over falling death rates, the fine print shows a system that’s still struggling to pay its own bills. We’re finally winning some old fights, but we’re losing new ones to the glowing screens in our pockets and the ultra-processed snacks in our kitchens.
Who is actually paying the bill? Here’s the weird part: the Central government is actually spending less of the GDP on health now than it did during the pandemic. We went from 0.37% down to 0.29%. If it wasn’t for the State governments stepping up, pushing their share to 1.1%, the whole system would be in even deeper trouble. Right now, combined public spending is stuck at 1.9% of GDP, missing that big 2.5% target we’ve been promised for years.
If you’ve seen a “Ayushman Arogya Mandir” in your area, you’re seeing where the work is actually happening. There are now over 1.8 lakh of these centers across India. They’ve done nearly 40 crore hypertension checks and 39 crore diabetes screenings. It’s basically a massive attempt to catch chronic diseases before they turn into a 2 AM emergency room visit. For the first time, the government is officially calling out our smartphone habits. The research is pretty scary: Indians spent 1.1 trillion hours on their phones in 2024. The Survey links this “digital addiction” to a surge in anxiety and “sleep debt” among people aged 15-24. There’s even talk of banning junk food ads during the day (6 AM to 11 PM) because childhood obesity is creeping up, now affecting over 3.4% of kids under five.
It’s not all bad news, small wins are there too. Since 1990, India has managed to slash maternal deaths by a massive 86%. That’s a huge win. The Infant Mortality Rate has also dropped to 25 deaths per thousand. But while we’re getting better at keeping babies alive, we’re struggling to keep them healthy as they grow up in a world of endless scrolling and processed sugar.