NEW DELHI: Health ministry is likely to see a substantial increase in funding, after it warned that its programmes were short of cash and sought more than $1.2 billion in additional money, according to government officials and documents seen by Reuters.The final numbers could change when Finance Minister Arun Jaitley presents the budget for fiscal 2017/18 on Wednesday. "These are the bare minimum requirements," Nadda wrote in a letter to Jaitley on January 10, outlining his request for additional funds. "There are several other significant programmes experiencing paucity of financial resources. "The government has been increasing allocation to the health sector after criticism over its social sector cuts in 2015.But pressures on the budget are rising. "But given escalation costs, there is no space for new health innovations," the official said.

Source: Economic Times January 30, 2017 15:02 UTC