NEW DELHI ESTH REPORT: MAY 2008 THIR@ WEEK

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 04 NEW DELHI 001383 STATE FOR OES/PCI, OES/STC, OES/SAT, OES/EGC, AND SCA/INS STATE FOR STAS STATE PASS TO NSF FOR INTERNATIONAL PROGRAMS HHS PASS TO NIH STATE PASS TO USAID STATE FOR SCA, OES (STAS FEDOROFF),OES/PCI STEWART; OES/IHA SINGER PASS TO HHS/OGHA (STEIGER/HICKEY),CDC (BLOUNT/FARRELL),NIH/FIC (GLASS/MAMPILLY),FDA (LUMPKIN/WELSCH, GENEVA FOR HOFMAN) PASS TO MAS/DAS/JESTRADA PASS TO MAC/DAS/HVINEYARD SENSITIVE SIPDIS E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: TBIO SENV AMED CASC KSCA ECON ETRD BEXP EINV PGOV TSPL, TRGY, TNGD, EIND, ENRG, KGHG, IN SUBJECT: NEW DELHI ESTH REPORT: MAY 2008 THIR@ WEEK NEW DELHI 00001383 001.2 OF 004 ¶1. (U) Summary: This edition of the New Delhi ESTH biweekly includes the Defense Research and Development Organization's successful testing of the Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile - Agni-III, re-organization of defense research, possible visit of S&T Minister Kapil Sibal to the National Ignition Facility (NIF) for laser fusion at the Livermore Lab, and proposed law for development and production of medical devices in India. The health section presents news on the Health Minister being implicated on vaccine issues, Drug Controller General of India's efforts to rein in the illegal market and fake drugs, updates on US efforts on quality assurance of HIV testing and HIV surveillance in India, Department of Biotechnology's cancer research activities, updates on Ministry of Health's tobacco control monograph, recent Avian Influenza outbreak in Darjeeling, West Bengal and upcoming staff changes in HHS/CDC in India. -------------- -------------- SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY UPDATE - INDIA TESTS INTERMEDIATE RANGE BALLISTIC MISSILE, AGNI-III -------------- -------------- ¶2. (U) India's Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) successfully test fired for the third time it's Intermediate Range Ballistic Missile (IRBM),Agni-III. Agni III has a range between 3000 to 3500 Km. DRDO officials have been reported to have said that Agni-III is now ready for induction by the army, though other military experts believe it may need a few more trials. A miniaturized submarine-launched version of the Agni-III called Agni-III SL is also being dveloped and could be test-fired shortly. Leading Indian newspapers have reported that unlike Agni-I (800 Km) and Agni-II (2000 Km),the Agni-III missile has been designed and optimized to carrya 200 KT thermonuclear payload. Further, Agni Program Director Dr. Avinash Chander has been quoted that India 
would skip Agni-IV and directly develop Agni-V, with a range of 5000 to 6000 Km. It would involve the development of a third composite material stage for the two-stage Agni-III missile and is expected to be ready by 2010. -------------- REORGANIZATION OF DEFENSE R&D IN INDIA -------------- ¶3. (U) Fifty year old DRDO has recently received increasing criticism for delays and failures. A Parliamentary Standing Committee on Defense in 2006 had called for a review. An independent review committee headed by Dr. P. Rama Rao, former Secretary, Department of Science and Technology (DST),was organized to review the operations of DRDO. The committee submitted its report to the Ministry of Defense (MoD) on 3 March 2008 and has not yet been made public. But as per reports in various news agencies, the report has called for reorganization of the 52 DRDO laboratories into five broad "lab clusters". The broad areas of the clusters are electronics, armaments, avionics, missile systems and a dedicated research cluster; each cluster is to be headed by a Director General (DG). Further, the report seems to have suggested greater autonomy for the scientists to collaborate with private sector, enhanced private public partnerships and international collaborations, participation of defense services personnel (end users) from the concept stage of the project to induction (to accelerate the process) and a focus on performance, cost and schedule. DRDO has been asked to follow a model similar to BrahMos (a supersonic cruise missile) project (an Indo-Russian collaborative project) for development and production. Based on this report the MoD has asked the DRDO to provide a roadmap of its development plans for the NEW DELHI 00001383 002.2 OF 004 future. In this context, SciCouns recently discussed with DRDO officials the management of the R&D enterprise in the U.S. -------------- -------------- USING THE NATIONAL IGNITION FACILITY FOR LASER FUSION AS A SCIENCE TOOL -------------- -------------- ¶4. (U) S&T Minister Kapil Sibal has been invited by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory to visit the National Ignition Facility (NIF) for laser fusion and explore collaborations for using NIF as a science tool. NIF will explore inertial fusion energy (new pathways to safe, clean, limitless energy),photon science and applications (developing advanced high-power, high-intensity laser technology and applications),laboratory astrophysics (providing new tools to study the cosmos),and plasma physics (understanding the behavior of turbulent plasmas, the "fourth state of matter"). Minister Sibal is expected to visit Livermore following the Biotech 2008 meeting in San Diego in June. Other proposed topics for discussion are climate modeling, genomics, healthcare technologies and technology transfer and industrial partnerships. -------------- NEW LAW FOR REGULATION OF MEDICAL DEVICES -------------- ¶5. (SBU) With a USD 2 billion potential market for medical devices, the GOI has placed in Parliament two Bills for medical device regulation, one from the Ministry of Health (MOHFW) and the other from the Ministry of Science and Technology (MoST). However, informed sources indicate that the MoST will likely withdraw its Bill paving the way for the MOHFW's Bill to be passed in Parliament. -------------- -------------- HEALTH UPDATE - HEALTH MINISTER IMPLICATED IN VACCINE ISSUES -------------- -------------- ¶6. (SBU) A leading Newspaper (The Pioneer, 12 May 2008) broke the story of a possible nexus between the Health Ministry (MOH) and a Chennai based private company which went into vaccine production just weeks before Dr. Anbumani Ramadoss ordered the production closure on 22 January 2008 of three public sector vaccine manufacturers; the BCG Vaccine Lab in Chennai, the Pasteur Institute in Coonoor, and the Central Research Institute in Kasauli. According to senior scientists, Ramadoss had cited one aspect of "redundant technology" in the June 2007 World Health Organization (WHO) report which had pre-empted the closure of the units and did not take the WHO offer of assistance to upgrade technology. -------------- -------------- FAKE DRUGS - DCGI MOOTS STUDY TO ASCERTAIN DIMENSIONS OF ILLEGAL MARKET -------------- -------------- ¶7. (U) The Associated Chambers of Commerce and Industry of India (ASSOCHAM),an industry organization estimates the growth of the fake drug market of 25% annually. The Indian pharma industry is pegged at a USD 6 billion and is growing at an annual rate of 10%. The Office of the Drug Controller General of India is to undertake a 6 month study to ascertain the drug counterfeits market. The detailed project design is under the Ministry of Health approval process. About four generic makes of each of the 61 popular brands are short listed. The study aims to examine the actual size of the NEW DELHI 00001383 003.2 OF 004 counterfeit market in India. "India annually sees 1,000 drug inspectors pick up 40,000 drug samples for regular testing according to which 0.3-0.4% are found to have zero active content while 8% are substandard. Health Secretary Naresh Dayal said "The counterfeit drug market which is still not that large has the potential to become extremely threatening." -------------- -------------- QUALITY ASSURANCE FOR HIV TESTING IN INDIA - CDC LAB TEAM PROVIDES THE ROAD MAP -------------- -------------- ¶8. (U)A three member team from CDC Atlanta was invited by CDC Global AIDS Program India to New Delhi at the request of the National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) to review the quality assurance protocol for HIV testing and laboratory accreditation issues in India. Together, the team visited the national reference laboratory in New Delhi and Chennai. DG NACO, Ms Sujatha Rao was appreciative of this initiative and the CDC team provided a clear timeline and roadmap for achieving the same. With thousands of HIV tests being done in private and questionable labs in India, quality assurance in testing is of vital importance if all the 2.5 million estimated people living with HIV (PLHIV) are to be reached. Currently, only about 20% of the estimated people living with HIV PLHIVs are aware of their status. The USG has already sent an additional lab funding request to the President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR). -------------- -------------- HIV SURVEILLANCE IN INDIA - WHO/CDC CONSULTATION REVIEW -------------- -------------- ¶9. (U) India has been conducting HIV sentinel surveillance since ¶1998. In 2006, the HIV estimates was revised in the light of the new data and more robust methodology to actually bring down the estimated people living with HIV from a median of 5.2 million to 2.5 million with percentage drop from 0.9% to 0.36%. In light of the findings, WHO/CDC came together with the expert consultation group from government of India to review the current status of HIV sentinel surveillance and the path forward. The group continued with the high risk group surveillance among female sex workers, injection drug users and men having sex with men as well take adequate samples from TB patients and Eunuchs to make it more comprehensive. The findings and recommendations will be published soon. -------------- DBT'S INSTITUTE FOCUSES ON CANCER RESEARCH -------------- ¶10. (U) The Ministry of Science and Technology, Department of Biotechnology's Institute the Rajiv Gandhi Center for Biotechnology (RGCB) in Thiruvananthapuram will get a special grant of USD 25 million to expand its research activities in the areas of cancer research, nanosciences, infectious diseases and spice genomics. The RGCB is establishing an animal research facility, and both a Bio-safety Level, BSL-3 and BSL-4 facility. -------------- MOH RELEASES BIDI MONOGRAPH -------------- ¶11. (U) MOH released a Bidi Monograph on 12 May 2008. HHS/CDC's Office on Smoking and Health are active collaborators on the report and contributed toward the development of this scientific monograph. NEW DELHI 00001383 004.2 OF 004 Many national and international experts including the CDC have authored various chapters of the report. Bidi, the poor man's smoke kills about 600,000 people annually in India. About 85% of the world's bidi tobacco is grown in India and 70% of tobacco smoked in India is in the form of bidis. According to the bidi monograph, for every cigarette, eight bidis are sold in India. India produces about 100 billion cigarettes and 700 billion bidis annually and is home to 100 million bidi smokers. Heahth Secretary Naresh Dayal said bidi crop cultivation occupied 35% of the area under tobacco cultivation. West Bengal, Bihar, Orissa, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Andhra Pradesh were the epicenters of the bidi rolling industry in India, while Gujarat and Maharashtra were the major suppliers of bidi tobacco leaves. Dayal added that "This monograph will help us work out useful interventions to curtail bidi smoking habits." -------------- AVIAN INFLUENZA - OUTBREAK IN NEW AREAS -------------- ¶12. (SBU) On 9 May 2008, GOI's Department of Animal Husbandry, Dairying and Fisheries, Govt. of India has notified Avian Influenza in poultry in the Village Painakumari, Kurseong Block of Darjeeling District, West Bengal. This is the first report from the tea-growing Darjeeling district. About 300 birds died and tests confirmed for the H5N1 strain of AI virus. This time the GOI is unable to blame Bangladesh as the source of the virus as the district does not border Bangladesh. The HHS/CDC Avian Influenza team met with public health professionals at All India Institute of Medical Sciences, National Institute of Virology, World Health Organization, and the National Institute of Communicable Diseases for review of information on surveillance, laboratory detection, disease-burden studies, and pandemic preparedness. -------------- -------------- Staff changes HHS/CDC - Stacie Greby joining HHS/CDC Global AIDS Program in Chennai -------------- -------------- ¶13. (U) Stacie Greby, transferring from Embassy Zimbabwe is scheduled to replace Dr Michael Friedman, Associate Director of CDC GAP in Chennai. She is currently on a two week TDY to overlap and visit the HHS/ CDC Global AIDS Program in South India. She is expected to be in position by the end of July or early August, 2008 MULFORD