Tata Trusts has committed nearly ₹1,200 crores, to be utilized, over the next two to three years, in setting up new cancer facilities and strengthening existing infrastructure in India to provide world class treatments to patients. The plan includes building four new cancer hospitals and equipping secondary level hospitals and community health centres with facilities to perform chemotherapy, radiotherapy and minor surgeries. Last month, the ₹130-crore, 180-bed Homi Bhabha Cancer Hospital, built in the place of the Railway Cancer Hospital in Varanasi, started operations and is slated for inauguration by PM Modi. Seven kilometres from this hospital, Tata Trusts will build another 340-bed hospital worth ₹350 crore inside the Banaras Hindu University campus.

On 19^th June, BJP President Amit Shah and industrialist Ratan Tata laid the foundation stone for 19 Cancer Specialty Centres to be opened across Assam. In a 50-50 collaboration, the Assam government and Tata Trusts have collaborated for a joint-venture called Assam Cancer Care Foundation (ACCF), under which a three-tier cancer care grid will be established with a corpus of Rs. 2,200 crore to be shared on an equal basis by both. Given that Assam caters to the medical treatment needs of the entire region due to logistical difficulties in setting up big centres in other North Eastern states, it’s imperative to have adequate number of cancer care centres in the state. A report found that the possibility of cancer can be as high as 20 per cent in the North-East , but given the lack of adequate cancer facilities, most cancer patients have to travel outside the northeast for treatment.