"United Kingdom is keen to collaborate with India in tackling health inequalities, combating effects of climate change, reducing the threat from epidemic disease and increasing access to medicines and innovation globally. India is already playing a big role to improve global health, including the treatment of diabetes," said Ann Keen M P, UK Minister for Health Services.

In her address at the seminar on 'The Diabetes Challenge' organized by the Confederation of Indian Industry (CII) in association with the UK Trade & Investment, in Chennai, Keen said India and UK have much to learn from each other. "There is a need to work together and pool our resources and knowledge to ensure that diabetes and diabetic related diseases are identified, and prevented in the future," she said Keen observed that an ageing population, increased urbanization, obesity, unhealthy diets and a sedentary lifestyle have all contributed to a sharp rise in the numbers of people with diabetes in UK. There are around 2.3 million people who are diagnosed with diabetes. By 2010 this number is expected to reach 3 million in the UK. According to the International Diabetes Federation (IDF), there is an estimated 40 million people living with diabetes or diabetes - related illnesses in India in 2007 and this number is predicted to rise to almost 70 million people by 2025. By then, it is estimated that every fifth person in the world with diabetes will be an Indian.

She pointed out that the WHO estimated that diabetes, heart disease and stroke together would cost about $333.6 billion in India in the next ten years.

Delivering his address, V K Subburaj, health secretary, Government of Tamil Nadu, said that 46.5 million people in India were affected by diabetes and related illness and India is bearing 20 per cent of the global burden related to diabetes and diabetic related health cost.

He said that unfortunately, there are not enough hospitals in India to treat diabetes and the cost of treatment is not affordable for many people. The country needs to take immediate measures, especially in prevention. The Government of Tamil Nadu is organizing prevention camps on diabetes and in the last two years it has conducted more than 8000 camps, screened around 8 million people. Over 2 lakh people were detected on diabetes and related disorders throughout the State, he added.

Subburaj said that more than 65 per cent of people are covered with essential treatment of diabetes. However, the lack of staff is the big problem facing the Government. The Government is introducing certificate courses to empower the medical officers to provide healthcare services in rural areas.

In his keynote address, Dr Prathap Reddy, chairman, Apollo Hospitals & chairman, CII National Committee on Healthcare said that one fourth of the world of diabetes are in India and one fourth of the GDP of India is spent for diabetes. Unfortunately, India is going to be the diabetic capital of the world.

Highlighting the scope of collaboration between India and UK in combating the health issues, Dr Reddy said that though India has adequate healthcare infrastructure and resources, the country lacks in skilled professionals to prevent and treat lifestyle diseases.

Dr V Mohan, chairman & chief diabetologist, Dr Mohan's Diabetes Specialty Centre and director, Madras Diabetes Research Foundation (MDRF), Chennai, said that India is the first to spend the highest portion of its GDP for diabetes care in the world. Over 50 per cent of the people in India do not know that they have diabetes and even in cities less than 12 per cent have the awareness on diabetes control.

In his address, David Hawkins, UKTI Life Sciences Specialist and Mission Leader, said ban on smoking and effective lifestyle changes go a long way in preventing diabetes. Britain had banned smoking last July and India launched the ban recently, which is a move in right direction, he said.