An eminent Indian-American doctor has offered a five-point solution, which he calls Panchamrit, to address the cancer crisis in India.Prominent among them include declaring cancer a notifiable disease, subsidising cancer screening, and establishing a command-and-control centre.

“We should get accurate cancer incidence and prevalence data, like in the US. Cancer should be considered a notifiable disease. This will help to identify high-density areas and how to allot resources,” Dr Dattatreyudu Nori told PTI in an interview.

Recipient of the 2015 Padma Shri awardee for his contributions to the field of medicine, Dr Nori noted that since the establishment of the National Cancer Institute of India in 2018, significant progress has been made. But this is not enough, he asserted.

Compared to the US, we have a late start in creating NCI hence the important programmes have to be put on a fast track and accelerated path. Worried about the status of cancer disease in India, Dr Nori said he has shared his solution mechanism to decision-makers in India.

Observing that the Central Government and most of the State governments have subsidised cancer care for cancer treatment, he said that these programmes should also include subsidised cancer screening. This will incentivise people to go for free cancer screenings.

Recommending the establishment of a cancer command and control (CCC) centre in India, Dr Nori said that this should be the apex body of all the issues related to the fight against cancer in India. The cancer command and control centre should collect five-year data from the Medicare database from each state and central programme and develop cancer geographical distribution.

“Using this data, a CANCER ATLAS should be developed which should show cancer info for every district, State. This should update every five years. This should be a major source of information for all central, state and local authorities to develop their programmes and prioritise their resources,” Dr Nori said.

Finally, he said that it is important to involve non-resident Indians and organisations like the American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin (AAPI) in the fight against cancer in India.

In the last seven years, he said he has provided scientific and technical help to most of the non-profit cancer centres in India, provided education and training fellowships to oncologists to receive advanced training in the US and worked with State governments in South India and received legislative approval for cancer to be considered as a notifiable disease.

Using patient data from State Medicare payments, he said he has helped develop a comprehensive database for all cancers and for all districts in Andhra Pradesh. This is helping to develop cancer Atlas, he said.

Dr Nori said, he has conducted hundreds of cancer screening programmes in Telangana and Andhra Pradesh and developed a model cancer screening programme which can be used in all states.

India is home to a great diversity of faiths and the Biden administration will continue to encourage it to uphold its commitments to protect religious freedom for all, a top US official has said, days after America designated 12 countries, including China and Pakistan, as “countries of particular concern”.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Friday designated 12 countries, including China, Pakistan and Myanmar, as “countries of particular concern” for the current status of religious freedom in these nations. He said around the world, governments as a Country of Particular Concern on the issue of human rights, State Department Spokesperson Ned Price said that India was the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths. “Our annual report on international religious freedom situation in all countries and that includes India,” Price told reporters on Tuesday.

The Biden administration will continue to encourage the Indian government to uphold its commitments to protect religious freedom for all, he said. “We engage officials regularly on steps they can take to advance religious freedom. As the world’s two largest democracies, the United States and India, are also committed to an enduring project,” he said. This is the project that Secretary Blinken spoke to previously.

The project that as our founders put it, of striving to form a more perfect union. This is a project for both of our countries, Price said. “We have worked together, and we can work together to show that our democracies can meet our peoples’ needs. We must continue to hold ourselves to our core values including respect for human rights like freedom of religion and freedom of belief or expression,” he said in response to a question. “That, in turn, makes our respective democracies even stronger. Secretary Blinken, given the totality of the facts and the circumstances, determined that religious freedom concerns in India do not warrant a country of particular concern designation or placement on the special watch list. But, these are conversations that we continue to have with our Indian partners and with partners around the world,” Price said.

India is exploring options to bring some of Apple’s iPad production to the country from China, according to two sources close to the Indian government. The tech giant is said to be holding ongoing discussions with officials. No concrete plans have been made, but if the effort is successful, it would expand Apple’s footprint in the country.

Apple announced earlier this year it had begun assembling its flagship iPhone 14 in southern India. The tech giant has been producing the older models of the iPhone in the country for a few years.

The tech giant’s ambitions to diversify more of its supply chain away from China follows protests across the country over the past two weeks amid Beijing’s strict zero-Covid policy. Apple warned in early November that iPhone shipments would be delayed due to the lockdowns in China, and analysts have been trimming iPhone estimates for the crucial holiday quarter.

The Wall Street Journal reported over the weekend that Apple is actively looking to shift production out of China to other countries in Asia, including India and Vietnam.

However, sources caution that a lack of highly skilled talent and individuals with expertise in building highly complex devices like the iPad could slow down these plans in India. The foreign policy backdrop also doesn’t help, with tensions growing between India and China. The two countries have squared off in recent years over territorial disputes resulting in escalated military presence at the India-China border.

Gene Munster at Loop Ventures estimates that 10% of iPhones are manufactured in India, but he expects production to increase at a slow pace.

“I think in five years, 35% will be manufactured in India,” added Munster. “I think Apple will add iPhone production to other countries outside of India and China in the next five years. Perhaps Vietnam, Malaysia and the USA.”

In a note to clients today, Piper Jaffray’s Harsh Kumar wrote: “While Apple has made efforts to move production out of China, in our opinion, India still accounts for less than 5% of total iPhone 14 production and is likely to help only to a limited degree at this time.”

Apple declined to comment.

India is the world’s largest democracy and home to a great diversity of faiths, the US said on Tuesday.

While addressing reporters, US Department of State spokesperson Ned Price said, “India of course, is the world’s largest democracy. It’s home to a great diversity of faiths. Our annual report on international religious freedom outlines some of the concerns we’ve taken note of when it comes to India. And we continue to carefully monitor the religious freedom situation in all countries and that includes India.”

“We encourage and will continue to encourage the Indian government to hold its commitment to protecting religious freedom for all,” Price added.

“We engage officials regularly on steps they can take to advance religious freedom. As the world’s two largest democracies, the United States and India, we’re also committed to an enduring project,” he said.

This statement came after the Biden administration released the name of countries that are designated under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998.

US Secretary of State Antony Blinken, in a statement, said, “Finally, I am designating al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin, the Taliban, and the Wagner Group based on its actions in the Central African Republic as Entities of Particular Concern.”

Blinken also said that Cuba and Nicaragua were added to the list of countries of “Particular Concern”, and China, Russia, Iran, Burma, Eritrea, North Korea and Pakistan remain on the list, according to the statement released by the US Department of State.

“Today, I am announcing designations against Burma, the People’s Republic of China, Cuba, Eritrea, Iran, Nicaragua, the DPRK (North Korea), Pakistan, Russia, Saudi Arabia, Tajikistan, and Turkmenistan as Countries of Particular Concern under the International Religious Freedom Act of 1998 for having engaged in or tolerated particularly severe violations of religious freedom,” Blinken said in a statement.

“I am also placing Algeria, the Central African Republic, Comoros, and Vietnam on the Special Watch List for engaging in or tolerating severe violations of religious freedom. Finally, I am designating al-Shabab, Boko Haram, Hayat Tahrir al-Sham, the Houthis, ISIS-Greater Sahara, ISIS-West Africa, Jama’at Nusrat al-Islam Wal-Muslimin, the Taliban, and the Wagner Group based on its actions in the Central African Republic as Entities of Particular Concern,” the statement quoted Blinken as saying.

US announcement of these designations is in keeping with the values and interests to protect national security and to advance human rights around the globe. Countries that effectively safeguard this and other human rights are more peaceful, stable, prosperous and more reliable partners of the United States than those that do not.

European aerospace major Airbus is looking to source green hydrogen from markets like India, Australia and Latin America as part of its decarbonisation efforts, a senior company official said.

Airbus is currently developing a hydrogen-powered fuel cell engine for its ambitious zero-emission aircraft that will enter service by 2035. It has also signed a partnership agreement with HyPort to set up a low-carbon hydrogen production and distribution station at the Toulouse-Blagnac airport in France.

The cost of renewable energy production in India and Latin America, among others, make them attractive as potential supply hubs, Glenn Llewellyn, VP Zero-Emission Aircraft at Airbus, said.

“One of the key activities that are underway at Airbus is to make sure that when we have a hydrogen aircraft available, we also have green hydrogen at airports. So, we are doing a lot of work with different airports and energy providers all across the world to make sure that green hydrogen is available at the right price when we need it,” Llewellyn told PTI on the sidelines of the Airbus Summit 2022 here.

The hydrogen station at the Toulouse-Blagnac airport is slated to enter into service in early 2023. It will have a capacity to produce around 400 kilograms of hydrogen per day — enough to power some 50 ground transportation vehicles.

“There are no hydrogen-powered aircraft flying today but we can use hydrogen to decarbonise airport activities… this allows us to scale up hydrogen availability and prepare for the time when we need it for aircraft,” he noted.

Replying to a question on the company’s energy procurement strategy, Llewellyn said, “We are looking at… how we can get hydrogen from places like India, Australia and Latin America, where we think the cost of hydrogen production is really interesting, and what the value chain will be to get that hydrogen to other regions of the world where maybe it’s more costly to produce locally.”

India is also a key market for Airbus.

‘Green hydrogen’ refers to hydrogen generated by renewable energy or from low-carbon power. It has significantly lower carbon emissions than ‘grey hydrogen’ which is derived from fossil fuels like natural gas. Grey hydrogen currently makes up the bulk of the hydrogen market.

With a view to making the country a major player in the segment, Prime Minister Narendra Modi launched the National Hydrogen Mission on 15th August, 2021. Under this initiative, the country targets to produce 5 MT of green hydrogen by 2030.

India has already announced its goal of increasing renewables capacity to 500 GW by 2030, and meeting 50 per cent of energy requirements from renewable sources.

“India is an amazing location with huge potential for the production of (green) hydrogen at a very exciting cost,” Llewellyn said.

“I would hope that one day we can have zero emission aircraft operating out of airports like Delhi and others at attractive price points based on home grown renewable energy ecosystem,” he added.