India looking at major transition in R&D opportunities: Azad

With government initiating steps to expand research infrastructure and human resources, Health Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said the country will soon see a transition towards equitable distribution of R&D opportunities and greater success in resolving health issues.
Addressing scientists after presenting 51 awards instituted by the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) for research activities, Azad said the Department of Health Research has rolled out three new schemes in this regard.
These include setting up of multi-disciplinary research units in medical colleges, a network of virology laboratories in all government medical colleges and national institutions and model rural health research units.

"We hope to see a transition in which there is an equitable distribution of research and development opportunities across the country, leading to improved outputs in terms of scientific solutions to out health problems," Azad said.
Highlighting the progress under these schemes, he said government has approved 21 of the total 35 multi-disciplinary research units in government medical colleges. Besides, five model rural health research units have also been approved.
He said 16 new bio-safety laboratories for working on viral diseases and TB have been established during last three years and India now has more than 20 such laboratories.

To enhance capacity for control of outbreaks and viral diseases, infrastructure for diagnosis and research will be created and strengthened in 160 government medical colleges.

ICMR Awards were presented to 51 outstanding clinical and biomedical scientists for 2009 and 2010 for their work in communicable and non-communicable diseases, maternal and child health and various other medical and biomedical fields. The JALMA Trust Fund Oration award for 2007 was also presented.
While nine awardees are from PGI, Chandigarh, seven from ICMR institutions, five are from AIIMS and three each from DRDO and KGMU, Lucknow, two each from NIMHANS, Bangalore, CSIR and Sri Chitra Thirunal Institute of Medical Sciences, Trivandrum and the remaining 18 belong to other institutions. The ICMR Awards are bestowed based on the quality of knowledge generated, as judged by peers in the scientific field.

Azad said India produces human resources not only for the country but also for the world as there were more than 81,000 doctors, specialists and super specialists of Indian origin in the US and more than 75,000 of them in the UK.
He also emphasised the work done in the field of cancer and mental health and said the central government has approved funds for setting up 20 new stand-alone state cancer centres, 23 new tertiary cancer centres and strengthening of existing 27 regional cancer care centres across the country.
"With this initiative, we will have an additional 70 state of the art tertiary cancer centres in government sector, when fully established," the Minister said.