Central Minister urges Telangana State government to join Ayushman Bharat scheme

Hyderabad: Union Minister for Science and Technology, Health and Family Welfare and of Earth Sciences Dr Harsh Vardhan urged the State government to consider joining the Ayushman Bharat scheme of the Centre.

Stating that Chief Minister K Chandrashekar Rao is a lovely person whom he knew closely for long, the Health Minister appealed to the Chief Minister to look beyond politics in the larger interests of the people.

He reminded that Centre had requested Telangana to join the health insurance scheme earlier. Dr Harsha Vardhan hoped that Telangana government would positively respond to the Centre's request this time.

The Union Minister visited the city to inaugurate the Next Generation Sequencing (NGS), a state-of-the-art facility for genomic studies at CCMB (Centre for Cellular and Molecular Biology) at Tarnaka on Saturday.

The facility includes cutting edge technology for high-throughput genome sequencing, which also enables diagnostic related sequencing of transcriptome and exome (parts of the genome that are expressed in cells) of clinical samples.

These services will be open for clinicians/hospitals and industry as well as academicians and universities.

The CCMB can now sequence up to 30 human genomes or 384 diagnostic samples in a day. For a country like India with its heavy genetic disease burden, prenatal genetic screening and counselling are essential in preventing genetic disorders.

Also, the genetic cause of many diseases among Indians is very poorly understood. Much of the existing body of knowledge for therapies against these diseases comes from studies done with Caucasian populations.

This facility would help in generating large scale genomic data from Indian populations - critical for genetic diagnosis and therapy. Harsh Vardhan called upon researchers to look beyond just publishing journals and strive for resolving long-standing problems facing the society.

He recalled how Scientists of yesteryear made big breakthroughs with limited resources and facilities available at that time. The Minister also laid the foundation stone for a new skills, training and lecture hall complex at CCMB.

The complex will house an auditorium for 320 persons, 2 lecture halls with a seating capacity of 100 each and 4 modern e-classrooms.

For an institute well-known for its academic meetings as well as multiple training programmes in the country but lacking such an infrastructure, this new building is sure to meet its needs.

This also enables CCMB to upscale its skills and training programmes.