The pills that stopped working : India's antibiotic resistance crisis
We're one of the world's biggest consumers of antibiotics — and we're paying a dangerous price for it.
What is AMR?
Imagine taking an antibiotic for a chest infection — and it simply doesn't work. The bacteria have figured out a way to survive it. That's antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in plain terms: bacteria evolving to outsmart the medicines we've relied on for decades. And in India, this problem is not on the horizon. It's already here.
India's crisis, by the numbers
India consumes more antibiotics by volume than any other country on earth, and that number grew by nearly half in just ten years. Much of this consumption is inappropriate — antibiotics taken for viral illnesses like colds, fevers, and diarrhoea that they cannot treat. Walk into most retail pharmacies across the country, and antibiotics like azithromycin or ciprofloxacin are often handed over without so much as a prescription.
Why India is especially vulnerable
Several factors make India a hotspot. A large private healthcare sector — which handles roughly 75% of all care — is fragmented and inconsistently regulated. Patients often visit informal providers or self-medicate based on old prescriptions. Antibiotics are cheap and easy to buy. And awareness about resistance among both the public and many healthcare providers remains thin.
What needs to change
Three things matter most.
First, prescriptions need to be taken seriously — both by those writing them and those dispensing them.
Second, patients need to complete their antibiotic courses and stop stockpiling leftover medicines.
Third, digital health tools that track and verify prescriptions can close the gap between what the law says and what actually happens at the pharmacy counter.
The good news: India has a National Action Plan on AMR, and a growing ecosystem of health-tech startups is building prescription-monitoring and rational-use tools.