WHO GLASS 2025 & India’s AMR Crisis: A Comprehensive UPSC Note (Prelims 2026)

One of the most important health reports for UPSC 2026

Around mid-October 2025, the WHO released its Global Antimicrobial Resistance Surveillance System (GLASS) Report 2025, confirming an alarming but familiar truth—India is among the worst-affected countries globally in antimicrobial resistance (AMR).

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🔍 1. GLASS 2025: Key Findings About India

🇮🇳 AMR in India is a severe and escalating threat

• 1 in 3 bacterial infections in India were resistant to commonly used antibiotics in 2023.

• Global average: 1 in 6 infections are resistant.

🚨 High resistance in:

• E. coli

• Klebsiella pneumoniae

• Staphylococcus aureus (including MRSA)

• Especially severe in ICUs and tertiary care hospitals.

📌 Key drivers identified by WHO:

• Overuse & misuse of antibiotics

• Widespread over-the-counter (OTC) access

• Self-medication & incomplete courses

• Poor infection control

• Environmental contamination from pharma & hospital waste

• Gaps in regulation & weak enforcement

• Limited surveillance in rural/primary healthcare settings

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🧪 2. India’s Surveillance Reality: Biased and Incomplete

India participates in GLASS since 2017, but most surveillance data come from:

✔ Tertiary hospitals (ICMR-AMRSN, i-AMRSS, NARS-Net)

→ These treat the sickest patients with high antibiotic exposure.

❗ Therefore:

The national resistance levels may be overestimates, because:

• Data from primary/secondary care hospitals are missing

• Rural and community-level infections are underreported

Experts insist India must adopt a “full-network model” by:

• Integrating 500+ NABL-certified labs

• Strengthening microbiology labs at district/primary levels

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🏛️ 3. India’s Policy Response: NAP-AMR (2017)

❗ Key problem: Implementation gap

• Only a few States have State Action Plans.

• Most are in very early stages of functioning.

• Funding remains low, fragmented, and inconsistent.

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🌟 4. Kerala: The Only Successful State Example

Kerala implemented a full One Health AMR action plan, including:

✔ Kerala Antimicrobial Resistance Strategic Action Plan (2018)

✔ AMRITH (2024): stopped OTC sale of antibiotics

✔ Statewide antibiogram revealed slight dip in AMR

✔ Goal: Become antibiotic-literate by Dec 2025

Kerala shows that AMR control is possible if surveillance + stewardship + awareness work together.

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🔬 5. AMR Literacy & Public Awareness — A Missing Link

Experts highlight the need to:

• Humanise AMR (tell real patient stories)

• Bring NGOs, youth groups, health advocates together

• Teach basics of bacteria and antibiotic use in schools

• Make AMR a public movement (like sanitation, polio)

WHO’s call during World AMR Awareness Week (18–24 November 2025):

➡️ “Act Now: Protect Our Present, Secure Our Future.”

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🐓 6. Major Regulation Success: Colistin Ban (2019)

Colistin, widely misused in animal farming, was banned as a growth promoter.

• Expected to reduce resistance, but long-term data are pending.

• Implementation remains uneven.

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💊 7. New Antibiotics Pipeline: Some Hope, But Thin

According to Bugworks and WHO data:

✔ 97 antibiotic candidates in pipeline (2023) vs 80 in 2021

✔ India’s CDSCO approved 4 new antibiotics, 6 others approved globally

❗ But only:

• 12 meet WHO criteria for true innovation

• 4 target WHO’s highest-priority MDR Gram-negative pathogens

⚠ Challenges:

• Most new antibiotics are not accessible or affordable in LMICs

• Pipeline still too small

• Stewardship needed to ensure new drugs don’t worsen resistance

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🌍 8. Global Strategies & AMR Industry Alliance

The AMR Industry Alliance focuses on:

• New antibiotic discovery

• Diagnostic tools

• Equitable access to antibiotics

• Responsible manufacturing standards

• Surveillance support

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💸 9. Funding: The Weakest Link in India’s AMR Fight

Experts warn:

• Surveillance funding is modest

• Innovation grants are small, sporadic

• Policy-level financial commitments are insufficient

Without sustained investment, AMR will become India’s next major public health crisis.

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🎯 10. UPSC Prelims 2026 – Key Facts to Remember

✔ GLASS 2025 → WHO antimicrobial resistance report

✔ India: 1 in 3 infections resistant

✔ Drivers: OTC access, misuse, waste contamination, weak regulations

✔ Big national programs:

• NAP-AMR (2017)

• ICMR-AMRSN / i-AMRSS

• NCDC NARS-Net
  ✔ Kerala → only state with full-scale AMR plan + AMRITH (2024)
  ✔ Colistin ban → 2019
  ✔ India joined GLASS → 2017

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📝 GS-2 / GS-3 Mains Answer (Model Introduction)

“The WHO GLASS 2025 report warns that India faces one of the highest global burdens of antimicrobial resistance, with nearly one-third of bacterial infections resistant to commonly used antibiotics. Weak enforcement, OTC availability, environmental contamination, and patchy surveillance have accelerated resistance, even as national programs and Kerala’s success offer a roadmap for coordinated action.”