Lifestyle

Chamoli, May 9 (IANS) The Narendra Modi-led Union government's ambitious Ayushman Bharat scheme is proving to be a major relief for poor and needy people in the border district of Uttarakhand's Chamoli. A scheme beneficiary, Digpal Singh, termed the scheme as a "blessing for the poor".

Thousands of people in the district have been availing the benefits of the scheme and are receiving free treatment worth up to Rs 5 lakh every year.

The most significant aspect is that the people living in remote and hilly areas are now able to receive access to better healthcare facilities.

Singh, who is admitted at the district hospital in Gopeshwar, said that he was hospitalised after suddenly falling ill. Since he had an Ayushman card, his entire treatment was provided free of cost.

He added that all the necessary medical tests were conducted free of charge and the doctors at the hospital also provided good facilities.

Digpal Singh said that earlier poor families had to face many hardships for medical treatment, but now the Ayushman scheme has proved to be a major support for people.

"The scheme is nothing less than a blessing for the poor," he added.

Similarly, scheme beneficiary Bharat Ram also appeared highly satisfied with the scheme, adding that he has been admitted to the hospital since April 11 and, because of the Ayushman card, his treatment is continuing without any expense.

Ram asserted that this is a very good government scheme that is providing great relief to poor families.

He also expressed gratitude to Union government for the initiative.

According to the official figures, a total of 2,36,108 Ayushman cards have been made in Chamoli district so far. Of these, 63,978 beneficiaries have received treatment under the scheme.

Till now, a total amount of Rs 1.01 lakh crore has been spent on treatment of beneficiaries. This clearly reflects that the benefits of the scheme are reaching a large number of people.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 9 (IANS) The World Health Organization (WHO) on Saturday said the hantavirus outbreak is not another COVID pandemic, and the current public health risk remains low.

WHO Director-General Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said in a message that "I know you are worried".

“The pain of 2020 is still real, and I do not dismiss it for a single moment. But I need you to hear me clearly: this is not another COVID. The current public health risk from hantavirus remains low. My colleagues and I have said this unequivocally, and I will say it again to you now,” he wrote.

The virus aboard the MV Hondius ship is the Andes strain of hantavirus. A total of eight Hantavirus cases, including three deaths, have been reported so far.

“It is serious. Three people have lost their lives, and our hearts go out to their families. Right now, there are no symptomatic passengers on board. A WHO expert is on that ship. Medical supplies are in place,” said the WHO chief.

Spain’s authorities have prepared a careful, step-by-step plan: passengers will be ferried ashore at the industrial port of Granadilla, far from residential areas, in sealed, guarded vehicles, through a completely cordoned-off corridor, and repatriated directly to their home countries.

“I personally thanked Prime Minister Pedro Sanchez for Spain’s decision to receive this ship. I called it an act of solidarity and moral duty. Because that is what it is. I want you to know that the WHO’s request to Spain was not made arbitrarily. It was made in full accordance with the International Health Regulations,” said Ghebreyesus in his message.

Nearly 150 people from 23 countries have been at sea for weeks, some of them grieving, all of them frightened, all of them longing for home.

“Tenerife has been chosen because it has the medical capacity, the infrastructure, and the humanity to help them reach safety,” he added.

The ship’s captain, Jan Dobrogowski, crew, and the company operating the vessel have shown exemplary collaboration at this challenging time.

“On behalf of the World Health Organization, and on behalf of those passengers and their families around the world, I thank the people of Tenerife and everyone else involved,” he added.

WHO assesses the risk to the global population posed by this event as low and will continue to monitor the epidemiological situation.

--IANS

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Mumbai, May 8 (IANS) Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Friday directed that water conservation projects and works under the Jalyukt Shivar Abhiyan 2.0 must be completed on a war footing in light of the El Nino threat.​

He emphasised prioritising areas where groundwater levels have depleted and making concerted efforts to recharge them.​

He issued these directives at a meeting to review the Soil and Water Conservation Department's work.​

CM Fadnavis stated that increasing groundwater levels is essential due to El Nino.​

Priorities must be set for water conservation, and Jalyukt Shivar works to ensure timely completion.​

State-level plans for Jalyukt Shivar must be approved by May 15.​

Revised plans should be provided to districts to accelerate progress.​

Beyond the selected villages, 10 per cent of additional works in neighbouring areas should also be undertaken based on priority, he added.​

To prevent de-silted streams from clogging again, CM Fadnavis suggested planting bamboo along stream banks.​

Repair work on Malgujari tanks in Vidarbha is scheduled for completion by June.​

He mentioned that he would personally meet Union Ministers to secure increased funding under the Pradhan Mantri Krishi Sinchayee Yojana.​

Soil and Water Conservation Minister Sanjay Rathod noted that the department’s revised organisational structure will speed up operations.​

Guidelines have been established to ensure that work aligns strictly with the original plans.​

Earlier, CM Fadnavis directed all state departments to prioritise disaster mitigation through rigorous water planning, accelerated soil conservation and the rejuvenation of old water resources.​

He emphasised that the state must remain “battle-ready” to minimise the impact of a predicted rainfall deficit.​

CM Fadnavis asked the administration to immediately focus on the Jalyukt Shivar and Galmukt Dharan-Galyukt Shivar (silt-free dams) schemes.​

Repairing existing water bodies was highlighted as a cost-effective way to increase storage capacity.​

The Chief Minister said each district will establish a dedicated Task Force comprising the Collector, irrigation officials and local body representatives to monitor water usage and storage.​

To prevent a livestock crisis, he directed robust implementation of the Fodder Development Programme, particularly in the backwater areas of dams and drought-prone regions like Solapur, Sangli and Marathwada.​

CM Fadnavis said that fertiliser supply and distribution will be monitored via the ‘AgriStack’ system, utilising Artificial Intelligence to prevent artificial scarcity and ensure transparency.​

--IANS

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Mumbai, May 8 (IANS) Pharma company Biocon Limited on Friday reported a 56.8 per cent year-on-year decline in consolidated net profit to Rs 198.6 crore for the fourth quarter ended March 31, 2026, impacted by exceptional expenses related to multiple factors, including the implementation of the new labour code.

The biotechnology major had posted a consolidated net profit of Rs 459.4 crore in the corresponding quarter of the previous financial year, according to a regulatory filing by the company.

Despite the sharp decline in profit, the company reported a rise in revenue. Consolidated revenue from operations during the January-March quarter increased to Rs 4,516.6 crore from Rs 4,417 crore in the year-ago period.

Total expenses during the quarter rose to Rs 4,241.2 crore compared to Rs 3,987.5 crore in the same period last financial year, it said in its filing.

Biocon said the quarter included an exceptional item outgo of Rs 80.4 crore under various heads, including the impact arising from the new labour code, which affected the company’s bottom line.

For the full financial year 2025-26, the company’s consolidated net profit dropped sharply to Rs 368.8 crore from Rs 1,429.4 crore in FY25.

However, annual consolidated revenue from operations climbed to Rs 16,927 crore compared to Rs 15,261.7 crore in the previous fiscal.

Commenting on the performance, Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw said the company ended FY26 on a strong note despite operating in a challenging geopolitical environment.

“This performance reflects the resilience of our business and disciplined execution through a pivotal year of integration,” she stated.

The company also announced leadership changes, stating that Shreehas Tambe assumed charge as CEO and Managing Director from April 1, 2026, while Kedar Upadhye has been appointed as the Chief Financial Officer.

Meanwhile, Biocon’s board has recommended a final dividend of 50 paise per equity share with a face value of Rs 5 each for FY26, subject to shareholders’ approval at the upcoming annual general meeting.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 8 (IANS) Hantavirus has a low rate of person‑to‑person spread and is unlikely to reach pandemic scale, and there are no widely reported or officially confirmed deaths in India linked to the current virus outbreak, a report said on Friday.

The report from Elara Capital said that the low transmissibility of hantavirus means that even though individual hantavirus infections can be severe, outbreaks tend to be localised and self-limiting.

Hantavirus infections remain rare globally, with no specific USFDA-approved vaccines or antiviral treatments available.

Hantaviruses are rodent‑borne RNA viruses that infect humans primarily through inhalation of aerosolised particles from rodent urine, droppings or saliva. The report added that only certain strains of Hantavirus, notably the Andes strain, have shown rare person‑to‑person transmission.

The report pointed out the stark difference between Hantavirus and SARS‑CoV‑2, causing COVID-19, which spread very fast and became a pandemic.

Two major clinical syndromes of Hantavirus have been noted globally. The first one is Hantavirus Pulmonary Syndrome in America, which leads to severe respiratory failure with mortality rates reaching 40–50 per cent.

Hemorrhagic Fever with Renal Syndrome (HFRS) in Europe and Asia, which affects the kidneys and blood vessels, has up to 15 per cent mortality rates in severe cases.

A recent 2026 cluster aboard the cruise ship MV Hondius linked to the Andes strain has resulted in a small number of cases and three deaths, drawing attention to the disease but remaining limited in spread.

The first recognised outbreak of HPS occurred in 1993 in the Four Corners region of the US (Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado & Utah) and was caused by the Sin Nombre virus. There were 53 cases during that outbreak, with 32 deaths, reflecting a high fatality rate.

China has reported 2.1 lakh HFRS cases from 2004 to 2019, and around 1,855 related deaths.

In the United States, a total of 864 Hantavirus infections were reported between 1993 and 2022, with approximately 302 deaths.

—IANS

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New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) IndiaAI on Thursday signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) towards advancing healthcare outcomes through the responsible and scalable application of artificial intelligence (AI).

The collaboration is expected to catalyse innovation at the intersection of technology and public health, while ensuring adherence to ethical standards, data privacy, and regulatory frameworks.

Both the institutions will leverage their complementary strengths, IndiaAI’s compute infrastructure, dataset platforms, and AI skilling initiatives, alongside ICMR’s biomedical research expertise and its Medical Information Data for AI Solutions (MIDAS) framework to enable innovation, research, and deployment of AI-driven healthcare solutions.

According to IT Ministry, the MoU establishes a structured framework for collaboration, bringing together IndiaAI’s technology infrastructure and AI ecosystem capabilities with ICMR’s deep domain expertise in biomedical research and public health.

The partnership aims to create a nationally coherent and interoperable AI ecosystem for healthcare in India.

ICMR will contribute anonymised and ethics-approved health research datasets, AI models, and toolkits developed under the MIDAS framework to the AIKosh platform.

This will enable broader access to high-quality biomedical datasets for researchers, startups, and innovators across India.

On the other hand, IndiaAI will provide ICMR with access to GPU-based and high-performance computing infrastructure at subsidised rates, subject to defined service-level agreements. This is expected to address a critical infrastructure gap in scaling advanced AI research in healthcare.

The partnership will support the co-development of AI-powered solutions addressing priority public health challenges in India.

These solutions will be informed by ICMR’s disease burden data and enabled by IndiaAI’s technology stack, said the official statement.

In September 2025, IndiaAI and ICMR’s National Institute for Research in Digital Health and Data Sciences (NIRDHDS) were recognised as Pioneer Countries under the HealthAI Global Regulatory Network (GRN), a multilateral initiative co-founded with the United Kingdom and Singapore to advance responsible governance of AI in healthcare.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 7 (IANS) The government has launched JANANI (Journey of Antenatal, Natal and Neonatal Integrated Care), a QR-enabled digital healthcare platform to track maternal and child health services, an official statement said on Thursday.

According to the government, the platform will comprehensively monitor and maintain digital health records of women during their reproductive years, including antenatal care, delivery preparedness, delivery, postnatal care, newborn care, home-based newborn and young child care and family planning.

The new system is developed as an upgraded version of the existing RCH portal and creates a longitudinal health record by capturing key service delivery events across the continuum of care.

The platform enables continuous monitoring, timely interventions and strengthens service delivery at every stage of child care, the government said.

A key feature of the platform is QR‑enabled digital Mother and Child Health cards that make records portable and easily accessible.

The platform also incorporates automated alerts for high-risk pregnancies, real-time dashboards for supervisory review, and due-list generation, enabling timely tracking, monitoring, and targeted interventions.

JANANI also enables integration with national platforms such as U-WIN and POSHAN, thereby facilitating seamless data exchange, improved coordination across programmes, and comprehensive monitoring of beneficiaries across sectors.

The platform enables registration of beneficiaries using unique identifiers such as ABHA, Aadhaar (OTP and biometric), and mobile number, along with pan-India search functionality.

The new portal ensures continuity of care for migratory populations and prevents duplication of records. It also provides self-registration facilities through web and mobile platforms, empowering beneficiaries to actively engage with their healthcare journey.

JANANI supports citizens by enabling timely scheduling and monitoring of antenatal care visits and immunizations, along with alerts and reminders to ensure that no critical health milestone is missed.

Moreover, it provides access to digital MCH cards, information on nearby healthcare facilities, expected place of delivery, and supports decision-making through health education and nutritional guidance, the statement noted.

Till date, JANANI has achieved 1.34 crore beneficiary registrations, over 30 lakh pregnant women registrations, more than 30 lakh MCH cards generated, and over 1 lakh biometric verifications, according to the government.

—IANS

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New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) India and Japan have signed agreements to strengthen cooperation in health research and quantum technologies, further deepening their strategic partnership in science, technology and innovation, the Ministry of Science & Technology said on Wednesday.

The agreements were exchanged during a high-level meeting between Union Minister Dr Jitendra Singh and Japan’s Minister for Science and Technology Policy and Minister of State for Space Policy, Kimi Onoda, who is on a visit to India with a high-level delegation.

Moreover, a Memorandum of Cooperation (MoC) in the field of health and medical devices was exchanged among the Japan Agency for Medical Research and Development (AMED), the Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) and the Department of Science and Technology (DST), the ministry said.

In addition, a Letter of Intent (LoI) on cooperation in quantum science and technology was signed between the Cabinet Office of Japan and the Department of Science and Technology, opening new avenues for collaboration in next-generation technologies.

The government has highlighted that engagement builds on the outcomes of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Japan in August 2025, during which both sides agreed to expand cooperation under the India-Japan Science, Technology and Innovation Partnership across sectors, including industry and startups.

Addressing the meeting, Singh said that India and Japan share a natural synergy in science and technology, with Japan’s advanced technological capabilities complementing India’s vast pool of skilled human resources.

He noted that India’s expanding national missions in quantum technologies, cyber-physical systems, electric mobility, clean energy and advanced computing are creating new opportunities for joint research, co-development and industrial partnerships.

Meanwhile, Japanese Minister Onoda appreciated India’s rapid economic growth and its growing focus on innovation, particularly the large-scale adoption of artificial intelligence across sectors.

However, in the health sector, both sides deliberated on expanding joint research programmes, capacity building and structured funding mechanisms to support collaborative projects.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) The government will host the grand finale and showcase of the Ayushman Bharat Pradhan Mantri Jan Arogya Yojana (AB PM-JAY) Auto-Adjudication Hackathon in Bengaluru on May 8-9, aimed at leveraging artificial intelligence to strengthen health claims processing, the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said on Wednesday.

The ministry said that the event will be organised by the National Health Authority (NHA) in collaboration with the IndiaAI Mission and IISc Bengaluru.

Moreover, the nationwide hackathon has received an overwhelming response, with over 3,500 participants registering through the official portal, reflecting growing interest among innovators, technologists and researchers in applying AI to public health systems.

According to the government, the two-day event will serve as a platform to showcase cutting-edge solutions designed to enhance the efficiency, accuracy and transparency of claims adjudication under AB PM-JAY.

It also noted that finalist teams will present advanced AI and machine learning-based solutions addressing key challenges such as clinical document classification, compliance with Standard Treatment Guidelines (STGs), radiological image-based validation, and detection of forged or AI-generated medical documents.

These solutions are expected to have strong potential for real-world deployment, improving the speed and integrity of claims processing.

Moreover, the programme will also feature panel discussions with experts from government, industry, startups and academia on themes such as ‘Building AI for Indian Healthcare’ and the ‘Future of Claims Adjudication’.

In addition, another session will focus on ‘Fraud, Waste and Abuse in the Era of AI’, examining the responsible use of technology in fraud detection while addressing concerns related to transparency, accountability and data privacy.

The government has highlighted that with nearly 40,000 claims processed daily across more than 1,900 treatment packages, Ayushman Bharat is among the world’s largest publicly funded health assurance schemes and is increasingly adopting AI-driven approaches for claims management.

--IANS

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New Delhi, May 6 (IANS) The government launched Swasth Bharat Portal to integrate multiple national health program applications into a single interoperable platform, an official statement said on Wednesday.

The application has been designed as an API‑based aggregator platform to eliminate siloed systems, fragmented datasets, sub-optimal utilisation of resources and duplication of efforts. It will reduce duplicate data entry and ease administrative burdens on frontline health workers.

It enables interoperability and convergence, creating a unified digital layer across programmes.

Envisioned as a one-stop integrated platform, it brings multiple national health programmes onto a single interface, eliminating the need for multiple logins and repetitive data entry, while enhancing efficiency at all levels.

India’s frontline health workers, including accredited social health activists (ASHAs), auxiliary nurse midwifes (ANMs), community health officers (CHOs), and medical officers (MOs), often spend considerable time navigating multiple applications for program reporting.

The newly launched portal addresses this issue by providing a single platform for easy access, along with data visualisation tools and the use of data at the local level for monitoring and evidence-based planning.

The platform is Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM)‑compliant and supports integration with Ayushman Bharat Health Account for seamless and secure exchange of patient health records.

It is designed to evolve into a comprehensive and interoperable digital health ecosystem, further integrating with national registries such as the Healthcare Professionals Registry (HPR) and Health Facility Registry (HFR).

The ministry estimated that efficiency gains from consolidation will extend to an infrastructure savings of about 20-30 per cent, reductions in repetitive data entry of roughly up to 40 per cent and similar declines in human‑resource duplication.

The statement from the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare said that Union Health Minister Jagat Prakash Nadda unveiled the application during the 10th National Summit on Innovation and Inclusivity.

As the system is designed on a federated architecture via APIs, the interoperability will be higher.

Currently, independent hosting, storage, and compute resources are maintained across programs, which can be cut down due to aggregation through the system.

Decision‑making speed is also expected to increase, the statement said, adding that portal marked a transformative step towards convergence, efficiency, and data-driven governance in India’s public health system.

—IANS

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