New Delhi, Feb. 1 -- Director General of Indian Council of Medical Research, Dr Rajiv Bahl on Sunday hailed the increased allocation to health research in the Union Budget and praised the launch of the 'Bio-Pharma Shakti initiative', saying that India has the potential to become a leader in growing bio-medicine market.

Apart from the increased allocation, the central drug regulator has been strengthened, a plan for building over 1,000 medical trial sites has been announced, and cancer medicines have been exempted from custom duties.

Union Finance Minister Nirmala Sitharaman presented the Union Budget on Sunday, allocating Rs 10,000 crore with the aim to make India biopharma hub.

"Research and Development particularly for health sector,...