Lok Sabha Question No. 3084 (UNSTARRED), answered on 2021-08-06
Subject: Research under Indian Council of Medical Research
Ministry: HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE
Asked by: Raja Amareshwara Naik, Sukanta Majumdar, Rajveer (Raju Bhaiya) Singh, Sangeeta Kumari Singh Deo, Bhola Singh, Vinod Kumar Sonkar, Jayanta Kumar Roy

## GOVERNMENT OF INDIA MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH RESEARCH

## LOK SABHA UNSTARRED QUESTION NO. 3084 TO BE ANSWERED ON 6 TH  AUGUST, 2021

## RESEARCH UNDER INDIAN COUNCIL OF MEDICAL RESEARCH

## 3084   SHRI RAJA AMARESHWARA NAIK:

DR. SUKANTA MAJUMDAR:

SHRI RAJVEER SINGH (RAJU BHAIYA):

SHRIMATI SANGEETA KUMARI SINGH DEO:

SHRI BHOLA SINGH:

SHRI VINOD KUMAR SONKAR:

DR. JAYANTA KUMAR ROY:

Will the Minister of HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE be pleased to state:

- (a) whether  Indian  Council  of  Medical  Research  (ICMR)  conducts  research  in  the field of medical sciences, if so, the details of research projects undertaken funds spent and revenue generated during the last three years, lab-wise;
- (b) whether  the  Government  has  collaborated  with  FICCI  for  commercialization  of technologies developed by ICMR;
- (c) if so, the details of achievements made including number and cost of technology commercialized so far;
- (d) whether the Government has reviewed the working of ICMR, if so, the details and the outcome thereof indicating the posts lying vacant in various labs of ICMR; and
- (e) the other steps taken/being taken by the Government to improve the functioning of ICMR?

## ANSWER THE MINISTER OF STATE IN THE MINISTRY OF HEALTH AND FAMILY WELFARE (DR. BHARATI PRAVIN PAWAR)

- (a) Indian  Council  of  Medical  Research  (ICMR),  an  autonomous  body  under  the Department  of  Health  Research  (DHR),  is  a  medical  research  organization  in  the country  which  spearheads  planning,  formulation,  coordination,  implementation  and

promotion of biomedical and health research. Through its 27 research institutes across India as well as through extramural funding to promote research in institutes other than ICMR,  medical  colleges,  Universities  and  non-governmental  organizations,  ICMR undertakes research in the area of various communicable as well as non-communicable diseases  such  as  malaria,  Japanese  encephalitis,  tuberculosis,  HIV/AIDS,  Kala-azar, Filariasis, Leprosy, Poliomyelitis, cancer, diabetes, hypertension, cardiovascular diseases  and  stroke.  Also,  it  caters  to  the  research  questions  pertaining  to  current public health concerns including nutrition, reproduction and maternal and child health, occupational and environmental health and health systems research.

Major areas of research undertaken by ICMR Institutes in the last three years can be accessed at ICMR's website at the link https://main.icmr.nic.in/sites/default/files/upload\_documents /ICMR\_Achievement\_last\_3yrs.pdf

Details  of  the  funds  allocated  on  intramural  and  extramural  research  by  ICMR  in  last three years are attached as Annexure-I.

Details of revenue generated in last three years are attached as Annexure II.

- (b)   A Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) has been executed between ICMR & FICCI for commercialization of ICMR technologies.
- (c)  ICMR-FICCI Health Technology Accelerated Commercialization (HTAC) program was conceived to facilitate the growth of the ICMR research as a technology provider to nation. The outcome of this program is as under:
- (i): Capacity Building and Value creation through tech transfer &commercialisation workshops.
- (ii): Technology Assessment & Commercialization whereby 20 technologies have been identified for commercialization.
- (iii): Participation in Global Research and Development Summit and Exposition-2019 to display the technologies at the exposition held at this summit.
- (iv):  Business Development status

Technologies titled 'AV Magnivisualiser';Fly ash-based mosquito larvicidal formulations and A novel Salmonella Typhi protein as subunit vaccine is under process of commercialisation.

(d):     The working of ICMR has been reviewed by a Review Committee constituted by Government of  India  under  the  Chairmanship  of  Professor  (Dr.)  M.  K.  Bhan,  Former Secretary, Department of Biotechnology, Government of India.

It, inter alia recommended  strengthening the DHR  and ICMR  linkages; administrative reorganization of the existing institutes by merger of ICMR institutes and centres doing similar work or those having fewer than 10 scientists, or those having low productivity  of  less  than  one  publication  per  scientist  per  year;  enhancing  Human Resource  Capacities;  foster  Multi-Sector  Collaboration;  undertaking  flagship  research programmes in mission mode aligned to national priorities; etc.

7 small institutes of ICMR have since been merged into existing institutes. The mandates of the  smaller  institutes  have  been  included  in  that  of  the  parent  institutes thus  broadening  their  research  expertise  and  complementing  each  other's  capacities. Also, a number of fellowships have been initiated to nurture clinical scientists.

Presently,  in  ICMR,  there  are  211 posts  vacant  in  Health  Research  Scientists  Cadre, 228  posts  in  Administrative  Cadre  including  Hindi  Cadre  posts  and  1151  posts  in Technical Cadre.

(e)  A  number  of  organizational,  governance,  scientific  and  policy  level  changes  have been  made  towards  augmenting  capacity  strengthening,  infrastructure  and  mission mode target oriented research, as follows:

-  Merger of small Institutes/Centres of ICMR has improved the work efficiency as well as helped in re-appropriating the administrative and financial resources.
-  Implementation of DASHBOARD Darpan Portal for analytical review of projects for  wider  publicity  and  public  awareness.  Similarly,  Electronic  Project  Proposal Management System (e-ppms) has been implemented for submission, processing, review of scientific research proposals & release of grants.
-  Treasury Single Account (TSA) system was implemented in 2018-19 as part of pilot  run  by  O/o  CGA,  Ministry  of  Finance  under which entire grant of ICMR is released  in  RBI  as  Assignment  rather  than  actual  release.  TSA  has  been resumed since April, 2021.

Time bound mission mode projects with national public health priorities in focus have been identified and initiated.

## Annexure I

Details of the funds allocated by ICMR for intramural research during the last three years are as follows:

|   Sl. No. | Name of Institutes                                                         |   Grant in Aid (2018-19) Rs. In Crore |   Grant in Aid (2019-20) Rs. In Crore |   Grand in Aid (2020-21) Rs. In Crore |
|-----------|----------------------------------------------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|---------------------------------------|
|         1 | Regional Medical Research Centre, Gorakhpur                                |                                  3.48 |                                  4.85 |                                  4.93 |
|         2 | National AIDS Research Institute, Pune                                     |                                 15.55 |                                 17.35 |                                 21.75 |
|         3 | National Institute of Cholera and Enteric Diseases, Kolkatta               |                                 39.53 |                                 34.8  |                                 43.49 |
|         4 | National Institute of Epidemiology, Chennai                                |                                 25.85 |                                 32.6  |                                 34.05 |
|         5 | National Institute of Malaria Research, New Delhi                          |                                 66.15 |                                 80.25 |                                 78.05 |
|         6 | National Institute of Medical Statistics, New Delhi                        |                                 11.5  |                                 15    |                                 17.55 |
|         7 | National Institute for Research in Tuberculosis, Chennai                   |                                 68.34 |                                 81    |                                 83.54 |
|         8 | National Institute of Virology , Pune                                      |                                104    |                                 89.2  |                                111.04 |
|         9 | National JALMA Institute for Leprosy and other Mycobacterial Diseases Agra |                                 34.6  |                                 34.2  |                                 32.9  |
|        10 | Regional Medical Research Centre, Bhubaneswar                              |                                 14.2  |                                 16.95 |                                 21.2  |
|        11 | Regional Medical Research Centre, Port-Blair                               |                                  6.16 |                                  7.8  |                                  9.75 |
|        12 | National Institute for Research in Tribal Health, Jabalpur                 |                                 25.8  |                                 29.7  |                                 27.55 |
|        13 | Rajendra Memorial Research Institute of Medical Sciences, Patna            |                                 19.37 |                                 23.2  |                                 24.55 |
|        14 | Vector Control Research Centre, Puducherry                                 |                                 30.8  |                                 34.95 |                                 38.56 |
|        15 | Desert Medicine Research Centre, Jodhpur                                   |                                 13.25 |                                 15.55 |                                 15.8  |
|        16 | National Institute of Cancer Prevention and Research , Noida               |                                 14.78 |                                 17.7  |                                 22.3  |
|        17 | National Institute of Occupational Health, Ahmadabad                       |                                 42.8  |                                 42.05 |                                 36.99 |
|        18 | National Institute for Research in Environmental Health, Bhopal            |                                  7.12 |                                  9.7  |                                 11.98 |
|        19 | National Centre for Disease                                                |                                 20.18 |                                 17.2  |                                 18.88 |

|             | Informatics and Research, Bengalure                                   |        |         |        |
|-------------|-----------------------------------------------------------------------|--------|---------|--------|
| 20          | National Institute of Immunohaemotology , Mumbai                      |  15.24 |   17.4  | 20.86  |
| 21          | National Institute of Pathology, New Delhi                            |  16.24 |   18.7  | 19.47  |
| 22          | National Institute of Traditional Medicine, Belagavi                  |   5.45 |    6.2  | 6.86   |
| 23          | National Institute of Nutrition , Hyderabad                           |  69.04 |   85.2  | 80.50  |
| 24 #        | Bhopal Memorial Health Research Centre, Bhopal                        |   0    |    0    | 131.65 |
| 25          | National Animal Resource Facility for Biomedical Research , Hyderabad |  10.5  |    9.7  | 6.80   |
| 26          | National Institute for Research in Reproductive Health, Mumbai        |  41.77 |   49.2  | 53.82  |
| 27          | RMRC, Dibrugarh                                                       |  49    |   28    | 32.00  |
| Grand Total | 770.70                                                                | 818.45 | 1006.82 |        |

- #  Transferred from the Department of Health Research (DHR) to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with effect from November, 2019.

Details of the funds allocated by ICMR for extramural research during the last three years are as follows:

| Financial Year   |   Funds allocated (Rupees in Crore) |
|------------------|-------------------------------------|
| 2018-19          |                               76.27 |
| 2019-20          |                              182.25 |
| 2020-21          |                               56.48 |

Note - (*) Revenue for F.Y. 2020-21 are subject to Audit of Annual Accounts. (#)Transferred from the Department of Health Research (DHR) to Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR) with effect from November, 2019.

| Sl. No.   | Name of Institute / Center   |   2018-19 |   2019-20 |   2020-21 * |   Total |
|-----------|------------------------------|-----------|-----------|-------------|---------|
| 1         | NIOH, Ahmedabad              |      0.31 |      0.32 |        0.97 |    1.6  |
| 2         | RMRC, Dibrugarh              |      0.19 |      0.6  |        0.32 |    1.11 |
| 3         | NIRRH, Mumbai                |      0.37 |      0.23 |        0.23 |    0.83 |
| 4         | NIRTH, Jabalpur              |      0.34 |      0.27 |        0.12 |    0.73 |
| 5         | NCDIR, Bengaluru             |      0.02 |      0.03 |        0.02 |    0.07 |
| 6         | RMRC, Gorakhpur              |      0    |      0.01 |        0.01 |    0.02 |
| 7         | RMRC, PortBlair              |      0.15 |      0.04 |        0.01 |    0.2  |
| 8         | NIMR, Delhi                  |      0.23 |      0.25 |        0.21 |    0.69 |
| 9         | NIE, Chennai                 |      0.2  |      0.61 |        0.13 |    0.94 |
| 10        | NIN, Hyderabad               |      0.77 |      1.24 |        0.73 |    2.74 |
| 11        | NIMS, New Delhi              |      0.06 |      0.07 |        0.37 |    0.5  |
| 12        | NJIL&OMD, Agra               |      0.1  |      0.19 |        0.14 |    0.43 |
| 13        | NIRT, Chennai                |      1.37 |      1.32 |        1.14 |    3.83 |
| 14        | RMRC, Bhubaneswar            |      0.08 |      0.16 |        0.09 |    0.33 |
| 15        | NARI, Pune                   |      0.17 |      0.05 |        0.09 |    0.31 |
| 16        | NICPR, Noida                 |      0.66 |      0.15 |        0.1  |    0.91 |
| 17        | NIOP, New Delhi              |      0.09 |      0.1  |        0.28 |    0.47 |
| 18        | NIV, Pune                    |      0.7  |      0.19 |        0.31 |    1.2  |
| 19        | NIIH, Mumbai                 |      0.49 |      0.3  |        0.09 |    0.88 |
| 20        | RMRIMS, Patna                |      0.19 |      0.46 |        2.81 |    3.46 |
| 21        | VCRC Puducherry              |      0.24 |      0.16 |        0.37 |    0.77 |
| 22        | NICED, KOLKATA               |      4.84 |      0.42 |        0.37 |    5.63 |
| 23        | NARF, Hyderabad              |      0.6  |      0.05 |        1.22 |    1.87 |
| 24        | NIREH, Bhopal                |      0.04 |      0    |        0.01 |    0.05 |
| 25        | NITM, Belagavi               |      0.06 |      0.04 |        0.06 |    0.16 |
| 26        | NIIRNCD, Jodhpur             |      0.05 |      0.03 |        0.02 |    0.1  |
| 27 #      | BMHRC Bhopal                 |      0    |      0    |        4.24 |    4.24 |
|           | Total                        |     12.3  |      7.3  |       14.46 |   34.05 |