VZCZCXRO9350
RR RUEHHM RUEHLN RUEHMA RUEHPB RUEHPOD
DE RUEHNE #1383/01 1420801
ZNR UUUUU ZZH
R 210801Z MAY 08
FM AMEMBASSY NEW DELHI
TO RUEHC/SECSTATE WASHDC 1819
RUEHCI/AMCONSUL KOLKATA 2222
RUEHCG/AMCONSUL CHENNAI 2925
RUEHBI/AMCONSUL MUMBAI 2030
RHEBAAA/DEPT OF ENERGY WASHDC
RUCPDC/NOAA NMFS WASHINGTON DC
RUEAUSA/DEPT OF HHS WASHDC
RUEHRC/DEPT OF AGRICULTURE WASHDC
RUEHPH/CDC ATLANTA GA
RUCPDOC/DEPT OF COMMERCE WASHDC
RUEAIIA/CIA WASHDC
RHEFDIA/DIA WASHDC
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RHEHAAA/WHITE HOUSE WASHDC
RUEHZN/ENVIRONMENT SCIENCE AND TECHNOLOGY COLLECTIVE

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