Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR)

CONTEXT:

The Indian Council of Medical Research’s (ICMR) recently released a report ‘Clinicopathological Profile of Cancers in India: A Report of the Hospital Based Cancer Registries, 2021’ which claims that the proportion of all cancer cases was higher in males (52.4%) than females (47.4%) with gynaecological cancers, including breast cancer, comprising over half of all cancers in females.

About ICMR

• The Indian Council of Medical Research (ICMR), the apex body in India for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research, is one of the oldest and largest medical research bodies in the world.
• The ICMR is funded by the Government of India through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare.
• The governing body of the council is presided over by the Union Health Minister. It is assisted in scientific and technical matters by a scientific advisory board comprising eminent experts in different biomedical disciplines.
• The Indian Journal of Medical Research is published under the auspices of the council.
• The council's research priorities coincide with National health priorities such as

• control and management of communicable diseases,
• maternal and child health, control of nutritional disorders,
• developing alternative strategies for health care delivery,
• research on major non-communicable diseases like cancer, cardiovascular diseases, blindness, diabetes and other metabolic and haematological disorders;
• mental health research and drug research (including traditional remedies).

Sources

• The Hindu
• The Indian Express
• ICMR website