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NEW DELHI: India discarded over 17.4 lakh blood components in 2025, even as blood collection reached a record 1.58 crore units, according to state-wise data tabled in the Rajya Sabha, highlighting continued challenges in blood inventory management despite a steady rise in donations.Available official data indicate that China and India are among the world’s largest blood collection programmes. In 2025, India collected 15.71 million units of blood, while China collected 25.5 million units, according to China’s National Health Commission.The data, reported by blood centres through the government’s e-Raktakosh portal, show that expiry was the leading reason for discarding blood components, followed by reactive units and other operational reasons. Reason-wise discard data has been captured on the portal since 2024, while such details were not available for 2023.Replying to a question in Parliament, the Union health ministry, however, said it had not received any report of regional blood shortages. It added that ensuring an adequate supply of safe blood and minimising wastage is primarily the responsibility of state governments and Union Territories, while the Centre advocates a hub-and-spoke model under which blood is collected and processed at high-volume centres before being distributed to smaller blood banks and storage centres.According to the data, Uttar Pradesh recorded the highest blood collection in 2025 with 21.6 lakh units, followed by Maharashtra (18.73 lakh), Gujarat (11.82 lakh), Rajasthan (10.79 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (9.74 lakh). Overall blood collection increased from 1.42 crore units in 2023 to 1.58 crore units in 2025.
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The annexure also showed a corresponding increase in blood component utilisation, with Uttar Pradesh, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu and Rajasthan reporting the highest utilisation during 2025.At the same time, Uttar Pradesh reported the highest discard of blood components at 2.40 lakh, followed by Maharashtra (1.87 lakh), Kerala (1.44 lakh), Rajasthan (1.21 lakh) and Tamil Nadu (1.09 lakh). The ministry did not provide an analysis of the wide variation in discard across states.Dr Hema Goyal, Consultant (Blood centre & Lab services), Aakash healthcare said blood wastage is inevitable to some extent, particularly because platelets have a shelf life of only five days. But discarding 17.4 lakh blood components in a year points to a mismatch between collection and actual demand. The solution is not fewer donations but smarter inventory management through real-time stock sharing and better coordination between blood banks.
