Key Facts

Details of the 2026 Kochon Prize conferment on 11-12 November 2026:

• Award Winner: Resource Group for Education and Advocacy for Community Health (REACH), headquartered in Chennai, Tamil Nadu.
• Conferring Body: The Stop TB Partnership, hosted by the United Nations, supported by South Korea's Kochon Foundation.
• Award Endowment: Carries a citation and an endowment of $65,000 awarded annually since 2006.
• Core Innovation: Mobilising over 3,000 TB survivors as community champions to bridge treatment gaps and combat social ostracization.
• National Alignment: Directly supports the Government of India's Pradhan Mantri TB Mukt Bharat Abhiyaan and the Ni-kshay Mitra nutritional support ecosystem.

GK Context

• Tuberculosis is an infectious bacterial disease caused by Mycobacterium tuberculosis, primarily affecting the lungs (pulmonary TB).
• India bears approximately 27% of the global TB burden.
• Under the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme (NTEP), India has set an ambitious target of eliminating tuberculosis, well ahead of the global Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 3.3 target of 2030.

Static GK

• World Tuberculosis Day is observed annually on March 24, commemorating Dr. Robert Koch's announcement in 1882 of discovering the TB bacillus.
• The Ni-kshay Poshan Yojana provides direct benefit transfers of ₹500/month (enhanced in recent revisions) to every notified TB patient to meet nutritional requirements during treatment.

UPSC Mains Framework

GS Paper II (Health Governance & Civil Society): Analyze the role of grassroots civil society organizations in bridging the last-mile delivery gaps in public health programmes like the National Tuberculosis Elimination Programme.