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A PIB Backgrounder set out how the Pradhan Mantri Bhartiya Janaushadhi Pariyojana is widening its basket beyond generic medicines into surgicals, consumables and home-care devices.
As of August 2026 the PMBJP product basket has 2,110 medicines and 315 surgicals, medical consumables and devices, covering all major therapeutic groups.
Over 20,000 Janaushadhi Kendras are operating; sales of Rs 7,873.85 crore across 2021-22 to 2025-26 produced savings of about Rs 37,200 crore for citizens.
Product lines include Janaushadhi Bachpan for infant care and Jan Aushadhi Swabhiman adult diapers, with items such as baby wipes at Rs 45 a pack of 20, cervical pillows at Rs 525, electrical nebulisers at Rs 937.50 and glucometer strips at Rs 500 for 25.
Products in the pipeline include a Range of Motion knee brace, a sit-to-stand walker, a medical steam vaporizer, a foot elevator pillow, a pregnancy back support belt and a cervical collar.
Make quality-assured generic medicines and healthcare products available at substantially lower prices through a dedicated retail network, cutting out-of-pocket health spending.
Key: Launched by the Department of Pharmaceuticals in November 2008 as the Jan Aushadhi Campaign, revamped in September 2015 and renamed PMBJP in November 2016; it sells quality-tested generics that are therapeutically equivalent to costlier branded drugs.
Affordable infant and child-care products for young families at Jan Aushadhi Kendras.
Key: Baby diapers in several sizes, baby wipes at Rs 45 for a pack of 20, 250 ml feeding bottles, manual breast pumps, hot water bags and infant feeding tubes.
A dedicated range of adult diapers for aged, dependent or bedridden family members, where recurring purchases make small savings add up.
Key: Part of the shift from medicines alone to hygiene, mobility, rehabilitation and supportive-care products.
Oxo-biodegradable sanitary napkins sold at Re 1 per pad, launched on 27 August 2019 to make menstrual hygiene affordable.
Key: An earlier example of the same strategy the backgrounder describes - using the Kendra network to sell non-medicine health products at controlled prices.
Implementing agency of PMBJP - it procures, warehouses and supplies the Jan Aushadhi product basket to the Kendras. It was earlier called the Bureau of Pharma PSUs of India (BPPI).
India's drug price regulator: it fixes ceiling prices of scheduled formulations under the DPCO, 2013, fixes retail prices of new drugs and monitors availability.
Nodal department for PMBJP, pharmaceutical policy and the NPPA; sits within the Ministry of Chemicals and Fertilizers.
The instrument under which the NPPA fixes ceiling prices. Formulations listed in Schedule-I of the Order are price-controlled; non-scheduled drugs are allowed a limited annual price rise. Jan Aushadhi works alongside this by selling generics cheaply rather than by capping brand prices.
Published by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare, it contains 388 medicines across 29 therapeutic categories and forms the basis of Schedule-I of the DPCO, 2013 - so a medicine's entry in the NLEM is what brings it under price control.
The statute under which PMBI, the scheme's implementing agency, is registered as an independent society set up by pharma public sector undertakings.
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A drug sold under its chemical name rather than a brand name, therapeutically equivalent to the branded version but typically far cheaper - the core of the Jan Aushadhi model.
The maximum price at which a scheduled formulation may be sold, fixed by the NPPA under the DPCO, 2013 and revised annually in line with the wholesale price index.
A medicine listed in Schedule-I of the DPCO, 2013, drawn from the NLEM, and therefore subject to ceiling-price control.