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The Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India (RSSDI) inaugurated its Diabetes Rural Outreach Digital Portal and launched VISHWAS, a Diabetes Awareness Video Library, at a programme held on Independence Day 2026, with Dr. Jitendra Singh, Minister of State (Independent Charge) for Science & Technology and Earth Sciences, addressing the event.
The RSSDI Rural Outreach Programme works through village adoption by RSSDI members and has reached around 30 villages across several States so far; the new portal standardises beneficiary registration, treatment documentation, longitudinal follow-up, programme monitoring and the generation of anonymised real-world data for public health planning.
The Minister argued that rural India is no longer insulated from the diabetes epidemic and that prevention must become a shared national priority, adding that digital health platforms must work in the colloquial languages people actually speak if they are to reach the grassroots.
Prevention, screening, early diagnosis, management, referral and follow-up of major non-communicable diseases — cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease and stroke — at every level of the health system.
Key: Launched in 2010 as NPCDCS (National Programme for Prevention and Control of Cancer, Diabetes, Cardiovascular Diseases and Stroke) in 100 districts across 21 states under the 11th Five Year Plan; subsumed under the National Health Mission in 2013-14; renamed NP-NCD in 2023-24.
Deliver comprehensive primary health care, including population-level screening for hypertension, diabetes and oral, breast and cervical cancer, closest to where people live.
Key: The Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres were renamed Ayushman Arogya Mandir in November 2023, with the tagline 'Arogyam Parmam Dhanam'. More than 1.6 lakh were operational at the time of renaming. This is the government's own equivalent of the screen-and-follow-up model RSSDI is running in adopted villages.
Cover secondary and tertiary hospitalisation costs for poor and vulnerable households, which is where uncontrolled diabetes eventually lands as complications.
Key: Launched on 23 September 2018 at Ranchi, Jharkhand; provides health cover of ₹5 lakh per family per year to over 12 crore families (roughly 55 crore beneficiaries), the bottom 40 per cent of the population. PM-JAY is the second component of Ayushman Bharat; Ayushman Arogya Mandir is the first.
Shift the national food environment towards safe, healthy and sustainable eating — the demand-side lever against diet-driven metabolic disease.
Key: An initiative of the Food Safety and Standards Authority of India, it works through food-business certification, labelling and citizen campaigns rather than clinical services.
Make physical fitness a routine part of daily life, targeting the sedentary behaviour that drives type 2 diabetes risk.
Key: Launched on 29 August 2019 — National Sports Day — at the Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi.
A professional society of physicians, researchers and allied health professionals working on diabetes; described as Asia's largest association of diabetes healthcare professionals. It is the Indian member association of the International Diabetes Federation and runs the Rural Outreach Programme through village adoption by its members.
The apex body for the formulation, coordination and promotion of biomedical research in India, funded through the Department of Health Research, Ministry of Health and Family Welfare. It runs the ICMR-INDIAB study, the nationwide survey that produced India's authoritative diabetes and prediabetes prevalence figures.
Global umbrella of national diabetes associations; publishes the IDF Diabetes Atlas, first issued in 2000, and co-leads World Diabetes Day with WHO. RSSDI belongs to its South-East Asia region, which Dr. Banshi Saboo chairs.
Sets and audits quality standards for hospitals and healthcare providers in India; accreditation by NABH is a condition of empanelment for several public health financing schemes. It is a constituent board of the Quality Council of India (QCI).
Prediabetes is a state in which blood glucose is higher than normal but has not crossed the diagnostic threshold for diabetes. It matters for policy because it is reversible through diet, weight and activity change, and because the ICMR-INDIAB study found more Indians in this state (15.3%) than with diabetes itself (11.4%) — a very large population that can still be pulled back. 'Real-world data' means evidence generated from routine care rather than from a controlled trial: who actually turned up for screening, who stayed on treatment, who was lost to follow-up. A portal that records registration, treatment and longitudinal follow-up in a standard format converts scattered village camps into a dataset that can answer those questions, which is why the release frames documentation, and not just service delivery, as the innovation.
Simple Analogy: A clinical trial is a controlled test-drive on a closed track; real-world data is the service record of thousands of cars driven on ordinary roads. Both are useful, but only the second tells you what happens in an actual Indian village.
GS Paper 2 > Governance > Issues Relating to Development and Management of Social Sector Services Relating to Health
General Awareness > Health Schemes, Days and Organisations
General Awareness > Science and Public Health
Non-communicable disease data and Ayushman Bharat components appear in nearly every general-awareness cycle; the ICMR-INDIAB figures have been in circulation since 2023.
Research Society for the Study of Diabetes in India — founded in 1972 by Prof. M.M.S. Ahuja, Asia's largest association of diabetes healthcare professionals and India's member association of the International Diabetes Federation.
The Diabetes Awareness Video Library launched by RSSDI alongside its Diabetes Rural Outreach Digital Portal on Independence Day 2026.
The Indian Council of Medical Research's nationwide cross-sectional survey of diabetes and metabolic non-communicable disease; its 2023 report in The Lancet Diabetes & Endocrinology gave diabetes prevalence of 11.4% and prediabetes of 15.3%.
National Programme for Prevention and Control of Non-Communicable Diseases — launched in 2010 as NPCDCS, subsumed under the National Health Mission in 2013-14 and renamed in 2023-24.
The name given in November 2023 to the Ayushman Bharat Health and Wellness Centres, the primary-care component of Ayushman Bharat, with the tagline 'Arogyam Parmam Dhanam'.
WHO initiative launched on 14 April 2021 on the centenary of the discovery of insulin, carrying five global diabetes coverage targets for 2030.