The Members of the Policy Group are : Keshav Desiraju, Jagdish Prasad, Akhileshwar Sahay, Nirmala Srinivasan, Vikram Gupta, Thelma Narayan, Sanjeev Jain, Vikram Patel, Anirudh Kala, Vandana Gopikumar, Alok Sarin and Soumitra Pathare.

The Terms of Reference of the Policy Group are :

a. To prepare a situational analysis of the need for mental health care in the country and the current provision of mental health care in the country, including issue of human resources, essential drug procurement and distribution, advocacy, prevention of mental illness, rehabilitation and care and promotion of mental health and rehabilitation.

b) To carry out a systematic review of the evidence base for the policy measures proposed below.

c) To take the draft Mental Health Care Act into account when drafting the National Mental Health Care Policy and Plan and recommend changes to the proposed draft Mental Health Care Act, if necessary, to support the National Mental Health Care Policy and Plan.

d) To prepare an evidence based National Mental Health Care Policy for the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare stating  guiding values, principles and objectives of such a policy and identifying priority areas for action.

e) To prepare a National Mental Health Care Plan with specific reference to the National Mental Health Programme and the District Mental Health Programme with specific strategies and activities to implement the priority areas of action identified in the National Mental Health Care Policy and to further prepare an estimate of  financial resources required to implement the Plan.

f) To conduct broad-based consultations on the above issues with mental health stakeholders in the country before finalizing the Situational Analysis, the National Mental Health Care Policy and the National Mental Health Care Plan.