Union Health and Family Welfare Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad today said the Mental Health Care Bill-2013 would be passed during the current session of Parliament.
"The bill, which seeks to institute far reaching measures to protect the rights of persons with mental illnesses, will be passed during the current session of Parliament," he said at the 18th Convocation of National Institute of Mental Health and Neuro Sciences here.
Azad said the Centre had approved Rs 5,200 crore for setting up 71 cancer institutes across the country.
He said one such institute will come up in Delhi, 20 in different states and 50 at tertiary level.
Talking about unprecedented success in the fight against polio, Azad said more than 170 million children have been given polio drops towards achieving the long-cherished desire of polio eradication in India.
Azad said the centre, under National Rural Health Mission has released more than Rs 1,11,000 crores to 35 states and urban territories.
He said two new All India Institute of Medical Sciences are coming up at Rae Bareli in Uttar Pradesh and Raiganj in West Bengal.
The Minister stated that mental health should become part and parcel of non-communicable diseases framework.
Stating robust mental health is pulse of any society, Azad pointed out that Union Health Ministry has identified 11 institutions across the country as centres of Excellence for Mental Health Care.
Delivering the convocation address, Biocon Chairman and Kiran Mazumdar-Shaw expressed concern that less than conducive environment for clinical trials in India is forcing researchers to take studies to other global regions outside India.
"Policy makers need to devise a framework to transfer the scientific knowledge to ground-level practitioners and funding agencies need to increase research and infrastructure investment for translational research," she said.
Mazumdar-Shaw said there was a crying need to pursue innovation-led translational research aimed at developing effective treatment for a wide range of life-threatening diseases.
"India needs to explore measures to expedite clinical research," she said.
