HYDERABAD: President, A.P.J. Abdul Kalam on Thursday called for providing concessions and incentives to healthcare, as given to other growth-driven sectors, saying that was how the medical sector could make an impact on the society.

Launching the `Kidney Care Project' of the CARE hospital here, he said, "Our hospitals have not grown to the first-rate standards and the few good ones are very expensive and beyond the reach of common man. It was time that we pay adequate attention to the healthcare sector in all aspects — education, training, capital investment and above all societal responsibility towards poor," he said.

As many as 15 people in 1,000 suffer from kidney disease and approximately one lakh patients go into end stage kidney disease every year in India, requiring either dialysis or kidney transplantation. "Not even 5,000 kidney transplantations are done in India and more than 60,000 patients fail to continue with dialysis due to financial constraints and lose their lives within a year in a slow and very painful manner," he observed.

Brochure released

Governor, Sushil Kumar Shinde, released a brochure brought out on the project by CARE Foundation. Chairman CARE hospital B. Soma Raju said that the Rs. 1 lakh donation contributed by the President earlier to the Little Hearts project had triggered a spate of donations and an amount of more than Rs. 2.75 crores was received. So far 528 children with congenital heart disease were operated.

Youth satellite

The Central Government has approved the design and development of a youth satellite that it will launch in collaboration with Russia.

The satellite will be built by universities in collaboration with the Indian Space Research Organisation and it will be made available to other countries in due course the President has said.

Participating in the Children's Science Congress organised on the lines of the 93rd Indian Science Congress, the President said the youth satellite would be a medium for the young of the world.

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