The dietary guidelines emphasize promotion of health and prevention of disease, of all age groups with special focus on vulnerable segments of the population such as infants, children and adolescents, pregnant and lactating women and the elderly.

The report presents, for the first time, the contribution of various food groups to the total energy, proteins, fats and carbohydrates from the dietary data of two large-scale surveys in India that used 24-hour recall method.

India's cancer cases could increase by 12% in the next five years projects the National Cancer Registry Programme Report 2020, released by the Indian Council of Medical Research and the National Centre for Disease Informatics and Research (ICMR). The country will have 13.9 lakh cancer cases in 2020, which will increase to 15.7 lakh by 2025. 

In the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic, while it is of paramount importance to provide early diagnosis and treatment to all infected individuals, it is also critical to promote research and development for larger public health benefit.

In the ongoing laboratory testing for COVID-19 diagnosis by molecular diagnostic methods, clinical specimens or a subset of the clinical specimens may need to be retained for various purposes such as performing additional tests, for quality control purposes or for use as control materials to assess newer diagnostic tests.

Since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, ICMR has received over 190 requests for evaluation of molecules/AYUSH regimens/products/technologies/diagnostic kits, etc.

On 18 May India reached a landmark in its fight against COVID-19 by performing 100,000 tests in one day.

The deaths of those with negative or inconclusive test results but with symptoms of the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) will be recorded as probable Covid-19 deaths, the Indian Council of Medical Research said in fresh guidelines on recording Covid-19 deaths released on 10 May, 2020.

This report prepared as part of the Global Burden of Disease (GBD) Study 2016, and published in Lancet , has found that every State in India has a higher burden from non-communicable diseases and injuries than from infectious diseases.