A joint meeting of the medical societies in India took place in Chennai in August 2012, giving rise to national recommendations and an action plan to address the challenge of antimicrobial resistance in India. The 'Chennai Declaration', published in November 2012, has a pragmatic achievable plan and represents a bold national commitment to antibiotic stewardship and infection control across India. The global importance of implementing such an antibiotic policy as a national strategy needs to be recognized and supported internationally.
Keywords: antibiotic policy; antibiotic usage; antimicrobial management; antimicrobial resistance; global biosecurity; infection control; national policy.