India is uniquely placed to bridge the gap between the rich and the poor countries in the case of public health. The country has strength in research expertise, affordable healthcare and low-cost manufacturing of drugs and medical devices, according to Dr Soumya Swaminathan, Director General, Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR).
 
Delivering the 24th Convocation address at Sri Ramachandra University in Chennai, she said health and biomedical research form the backbone of our response to life-threatening diseases and pandemics. Research not only leads the path to new approaches and tools for disease management, but also helps unravel best practices and eliminates barriers to care. Additionally, local environmental, cultural and biological factors also impact the spread of disease and contribute to its unique characteristics.

In many cases, this leads to a need for locally tailored responses for managing the same disease across different regions. Pioneering collaborative projects and exchange programmes with our neighbours in south east Asia and African countries with the Indian centres of excellence, especially in emerging areas of research such as immunotherapy, genomics, proteomics, bioinformatics, computational biology and bioethics will help catalyze innovation and empower a critical mass of young scientists in developing countries to lead and take the ownership of health research there, she added.

“ICMR’s role is to conduct and promote research to find new tools, technologies and strategies to address high-priority health concerns for the country. Until the recent past, marginalized communities - both in rural and urban sectors were observed to have a disproportionately high incidence of infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy. However, trends have been shifting and there is an increased incidence of non-communicable diseases such as cancer, diabetes and heart disease across all sections of the population. ICMR has successfully developed technologies that have impacted policy in managing infectious diseases such as tuberculosis, malaria and leprosy. In addition to disease surveillance through our highly specialized network, we have conducted national taskforce studies for diseases of concern such as diabetes, stroke and nutritional deficiencies. Capacity building efforts will largely be implemented through additional scholarships for medical and health professionals, fellowships for emerging scientists, and training and exchange programmes. ICMR has recently established an Evidence to Policy Unit and Health Technology Assistance Board in order to accelerate policy and programmatic adoption on new strategies and interventions that have demonstrated success in research settings. Additionally, ICMR is preparing a new vision and strategy document to guide its work over the next five years”, Dr. Swaminathan said.
 
Dr Swaminathan presented gold medals to meritorious students. V.R. Venkataachalam, Chancellor, conferred the degrees and gave away certificates to 675 graduates.