The Government has decided to provide Anti-Retro Viral drugs to HIV/AIDS patients free of cost in the Government hospitals from April, 2004. The medicines will be provided to the catagories of children below 15 years of age, mothers with HIV/AIDS and pragnant women with HIV. It is estimated to cover about one lakh persons in the first year at an estimated cost of over Rs 130 crore.

Successful completion of World Bank assisted Cataract blindness Control project (1994-2002), with performance of more than 1.5 crore cataract operations against a target of 1.1 crore operations, were the main highlights. World Bank has rated the outcome of the project as highly satisfactory. There is significant increase in Intra Ocular Lens implantation in cataract surgery from 12 per cent in 1996-97 to more than 75 per cent in 2002-2003.

Nearly 400 new eye care facilities have been developed and equipped in Government and Voluntary sector during last five years. More than once thousand eye surgeons were trained in modern technology to implant Intra Ocular Lens during cataract surgery.

National survey on Blindness (2001-2002) has revealed reduction in prevalence of blindness from 1.49 per cent to 1.1 per cent.

• The coverage under RNTCP has increase by more than 35 times from 200 lakh in 1998, to around 7,410 lakh till date.
• In 2000 and 2001, India accounted for over ½ of the global increase in DOTS coverage.
• In 2001, around 2/3^rd of all sputum positive cases detected globally were contributed by India alone.
• In 2002, India place more than 6.2 lakh cases on DOTS, more cases than any other country in the world.
• More than 2 million cases have been placed on treatment since the inception of RNTCP (around 1.6 million in pat four years) saving more than 3.5 lakh additional lives (around 3 lakh in past 4 years)
• Annualised detection rate of new sputum positive cases is now 66 per cent againt target of 70 per cent and cure rate among such cases is 86 per cent against target of 85 per cent in the areas implementing RNTCP.
• It is planned that 850 million population covered by 2004 and the entire country is envisaged to be covered under RNTCP by 2005.

1. The prevalence of leprosy in the country came down from 5.09 lakh cases in March, 1999, to 3.44 lakh cases in March, 2003. During the above period, the Prevalence Rate (PR) declined from 5.27 case per 10,000 population to 3.23 per 10,000 population, and the disability grade II among new cases declined from 3.43 per cent to 1.80 per cent.
2. During the years, the number of States/UTs attaining the goal of elimination of leprosy (PR< 1/10,000) rose from four States to 15 States by the end of March, 2003, and another 6 States/UTs were very near to achieve this goal.
3. A total of 2.32 million cases of leprosy were cured with MDT.

The National Cancer Control Programme, which is a Central programme, is operating the following sub schemes:

1. Development of oncology Wing in medical college hospitals
2. Setting up of cobalt therapy unit
3. District Cancer Control Programme
4. Financial assistance to registered voluntary organizations
5. Regional Cancer Centres (RCCs)

Under these schemes, assistance was extended to different institutions during the last four years as follows:

1. 7 RCCs recognised in various parts of the country.
2. 25 NGOs extended assistance under the health education & awareness scheme
3. 33 institutions extended assistance under the cobalt scheme
4. 365 institutions extended assistance under the oncology scheme
5. 17 districts covered under District Cancer Control Programme.

A post-graduate institute of medial education and research is being set up at Dr RML Hospital, New Delhi, with an estimated cost of Rs.42.96 crore. The institute will provide post graduate and pot doctoral educational facilities to the MBBS doctors in 15 and 20 super-specialties, in addition to better medical facilities to the needy patients.

The Vardhman Mahavir Medical College, affiliated to the Guru Gobind Singh Indraprastha University, Delhi, has been established at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi with a capacity of 100 MBBS seats.

Under the scheme "Pradhan Mantri Swasthya Suraksha yojana", it is proposed to set up six institutions on the pattern of AIIMS in the States of Bihar, Chhattisgarh, Madhya Pradesh, Rajasthan, Uttaranchal, as well as Orissa, where PM has already laid the foundation stone. These new institutions would be funded and managed by the Government of India. The State governments have come forward to make available at least 100 acres of developed land with provision of water and power connection and approach roads free of cost.

The Ministry of Health & Family Welfare is allocating MBBS/BDS seats from the Central pool to the States/UTs without medical/dental college and certain other Departmnets. These Departments include the Ministry of Defence, Cabinet Secretariat and the Ministry of Home Affairs, where seats are allocated forwards/widows of military and para-military personnel killed in action or disabled in action. The Ministry, for the first time have introduced a scheme for providing assistance to the families, viz. spouse/children of those innocent civilians, who are killed or disabled due to terrorist attacks, for example, those killed in the attack on Parliament, Akshardham temple at Ahmedabad, killings in J&K and other places, etc. For this purpose, four MBBS seats have been allocated at the Vardhman Mahavir Medical College at Safdarjung Hospital, New Delhi, from the year 2003-2004.

With a view to discouraging the use of tobacco products considering its adverse effects, a comprehensive legislation entitled "The Cigarettes and other Tobacco Products (Prohibition of Advertisement and Regulation of Trade and Commerce, Production, Supply and Distribution) Act 2003 has been enacted recently. The law provides for total ban on advertisement of tobacco products, prohibition of smoking in public places, ban on sale of tobacco products to minors etc.

In order to augment quick response mechanism for tackling major disasters, such as the severe earthquake in Gujarat and the super cyclone in Orissa, the Government is acquiring container-based, mobile hospitals for emergency medical relief under a project named "Sanjivani". These units can be transported by rail, road or by air, and can be set up at or near the disaster site at short notice, and are self-sufficient to take care of medical emergencies. The unit is also ideally suited to provide quality secondary and tertiary care services at the doorstep of the community as a supportive system to health melas, medical and surgical camps. This also finds application during wartime to attend to army and civilian casualties at border areas.

The Capacity Building Project is the first systematic and comprehensive attempt to upgrade this infrastructure in food and drugs sectors in the Central and the States.

The primary objectives of the project are to ensure high standards of quality, safety and efficacy of drugs; enhancing capacity and capability of laboratories in Central and State Sectors for both food and drug; Introduction of Good Manufacture Practice (GMP) and Hazard Analysis Critical Control point (HASSP) for medium and small sector food processing industries; uniform enforcement capabilitis for State Drugs and Food regulatory agencies; training of regulatory staff and industry personnel; consumer education and effective networking through computerisation and monitoring; develop a system of continuous surveys of street food and domestic and imported food products; establish appropriate infrastructure for new drug approvals to meet global safety, efficacy and rationality standards; and strengthened surveillance system for adverse drug events.

This is a five year project and is estimated to cost is Rs.354.65 crore. This is a Central Sector Project in which all States/UTs are participating.

The project will be effective from October, 2003.

For the first time, a separate National Policy on Indian Systems of Medicine and Homoeopathy–2002 was formulated. The basic objectives of the Policy are to promote good health, expand the outreach and to ensure affordable ISM&H services to our people, as also to integrate ISM&H in health care delivery systems in the national programmes.

Good Manufacturing Practices (GMP) were made effective from June 23, 2002, to ensure improvement of quality in manufacture of drugs of the Indian Systems of Medicine.

In September, 2002, guidelines for Good Laboratory Practices were notified to aim at standardising the laboratories meant to test ISM drugs.

The Indian Medicines Central Council (Amendment) Act, 2002, and the Homoeopathy Central Council (Amendment) Act, 2002, were passed to ensure curtailing the mushrooming growth of sub-standard institutions.

Nineteen new schemes aimed at developing and promoting ISM&H have been approved for implementation during X Plan.

A Pilot scheme for supply of Home Remedies Kit, containing medicines of Ayurveda, Siddha, Unani and Homoeopathy for 15 common ailments, to be supplied to rural population in selected districts, was initiated and is under implementation.

The essential Drugs Lists for Ayurvedic, Unani and Homoeopathic medicine were drawn and States were advised to make available these drugs in their hospitals and dispensaries.

Schedule ‘K’ of Drugs and Cosmetics Rules was amended to facilitate availability of 49 Homoeopathic drugs in all licensed pharmacies (Chemist’s shops).

Scheme for upgrading State Drug Testing Laboratories and Pharmacies was implemented during 2000-2001 and 2001-2002, to improve the capacity of the States and to monitor the quality of ISM products is being continued in Tenth Plan.

About 313 Blocks in the country have been taken up for propagation of ISM&H strategies through Non-governmental organisations.

National Medicinal Plants Board was operationalised in November, 2000, to co-ordinate all aspects related to the development of medicinal plant sector and assist States to set up Medicinal Plants Boards. Till date, 27 State Medicinal Plants Board have been set up.

Cultivation practices of 32 commercially important medicinal plants were published by the National Medicinal Plants Board in May, 2002.

About 324 projects have been sanctioned, covering an area of about 4,000 hectares, which would, apart from meeting the needs of industry, generate work for 1 million mandays, per year.

Concerted efforts have been made to develop and propagate ISM systems, particularly Ayurveda, in foreign countries. This has resulted in collaboration in education and research and better realisation of strengths of Ayurveda.

Ayurveda has been recognised as an official system of Health Care in Hungary, Mauritious and South Africa.

The National Centre for Complementary and Alternative Systems, National Institute of Health, USA, has agreed to conduct joint research in Ayurvedic drugs. A workshop on Collaborative Research in Ayurveda, between USA and Indian Researchers, is scheduled to be held in October, 2003.

With a view to making optimum use of vast infrastructure available in ISM&H Sector, efforts were made to integrate ISM&H into over all health care delivery system. A pilot project for Ayurveda, Siddha interventions in the conditions covered under RCH in eight areas, was started to be implemented in two districts each of Kerala, Karnataka, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan.

A kit, containing five Ayurveda drugs, was planned to be distributed through the network of PHCs by ANMs in the State of U.P., Uttranchal, Madhya Pradesh, Chattisgarh, Rajasthan, Himachal Pradesh, Kerala and Karnataka.

Five Unani medicines were also incorporated for distribution in Delhi, Aligarh, Hyderabad and Lucknow.

A joint collaborative project of Council of Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) and Department of ISM&H, for preparing Traditional Knowledge Digital Library (TKDL), was envisaged & launched on March 26, 2002, to prevent patent claims on medicinal uses of plant described singly, or in combination with other ingredients described in Ayurvedic texts. TKDL for Unani, Siddha and Yoga was also initiated.

Ayurvedic Pharmacopoeia (Volume I, II and III), Unani Pharmacopoeia Part-I, Volume-I and Homoeopathic Pharmacopoeia Volume-VIII, have been published.

A state-of-the-art National Ayurvedic Hospital is to come up in Delhi, initially for 100 beds with plans to expand gradually.

Project for the establishment of a National Institute of Siddha, has been finalised and construction work started at Chennai, in collaboration with the government of Tamil Nadu.

Construction of a new Yoga and meditation centre at Morarji Desai National Institute of Yoga (MDNIY), New Delhi, to emerge as a major landmark for yoga and meditation activities has started.