Bangalore, 6th March 2023 – Jana Small Finance Bank, one of the leading small finance banks in India, is celebrating its fifth anniversary this year on March 28, 2023. Over the past five years, the bank has been dedicated to serving underserved segments of society by providing them with a broad range of financial services. In celebration of this milestone, Jana Small Finance Bank has announced special fixed deposit rates for a limited period until March 31, 2023.

Under the new fixed deposit rates, customers can benefit from a special anniversary FD rate of 8.85% for senior citizen customers and 8.15% for regular customers, with a tenure of 500 days.

Fixed Deposit Rate Table effective from 1st March’2023:

The special fixed deposit rates offer is available to both new and existing customers of Jana Small Finance Bank, and customers can easily book or invest in FDs from the comfort of their homes or offices through internet banking.

Jana Small Finance Bank continues to serve the underserved in all segments and supports the potential of Rural India through digitization across the customer life-cycle. The bank remains committed to serving its customers with excellent service and innovative financial solutions.

Chennai, 06 March 2023: Fostering a culture of safe riding habits and responsible driving, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India (HMSI) and Greater Chennai Corporation celebrated the 4th year anniversary of its Children’s Road Safety & Traffic Park at Napier Bridge Kamarajar Salai, Chennai, Tamil Nadu.

The celebration was held in the august presence of Sh. Kasiviswanathan (Assistant Executive Engineer, Greater Chennai Corporation, Tamil Nadu) and representatives from Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India.

Aiming to raise road safety awareness among the citizens, HMSI in collaboration with Greater Chennai Corporation inaugurated traffic training park in Chennai in February 2019. Based on the mini-city concept, the traffic park simulates real road conditions like traffic signals, zebra crossings and speed breakers etc.

Since its inception, HMSI’s road safety instructors have successfully educated nearly 58,000 people of Chennai – nearly 48,000 kids and more than 10,000 new and existing riders (including both male and females) through its daily trainings for all age groups.

Speaking on the initiative, Mr. Prabhu Nagaraj – Operating Officer, Brand & Communication, Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India said, “Being a socially responsible corporate, HMSI constantly encourages safe riding practices to bring a positive change. Realizing the sensitivity of Chennai traffic, we inaugurated traffic training park in the city in association with Greater Chennai Corporation. Today, we are delighted to announce that the traffic training park has educated 58,000 people of the city. Road user behavioral changes are necessary to help reduce and prevent road collisions. With our training programs that caters to participants across all age groups, we will continue to instill more discipline among the citizens of Coimbatore to make them responsible road users.”

Honda Motorcycle & Scooter India’s CSR commitment towards Road Safety:

For Honda globally, road safety comes first. As announced in April 2021, “Honda will strive for zero traffic collision fatalities involving Honda motorcycles and automobiles globally by 2050”. Fulfilling its corporate social responsibility (CSR), HMSI has been promoting road safety in India since its start in 2001. Working towards the realisation of Honda’s global safety vision, today HMSI’s road safety awareness initiative has already spread to more than 50 lac Indians. Its team of skilled safety instructors conduct daily programmes at its 10 adopted traffic parks across India and 7 Safety Driving Education Centres (SDEC).

Not only this, all HMSI’s 1000+ dealerships across India spread road safety awareness. HMSI’s proprietary virtual riding simulator increases the risk-prediction ability of riders; while new customers too are given predelivery safety advise (PDSA) before they start riding at every dealership across India.

Additionally, ensuring that learning doesn’t stop in the new normal, HMSI started the digital road safety education initiative – Honda Road Safety E-Gurukul. Since its start in May’20, this initiative has sensitized more than 8 Lac Indians on importance of being aware & responsible road users.

06 March 2023 The Commonwealth Secretary-General, Rt Hon Patricia Scotland KC, has arrived in Goa, India for her keynote speech at the Commonwealth Law Conference (CLC) which will mark 20 years since the adoption of the Commonwealth’s Latimer House Principles.

Organised by the Commonwealth Lawyers Association (CLA), the 23rd CLC is being held in Goa, India from 5-9 March 2023 on the theme of ‘Common Challenges in Uncommon Times’.

The Secretary-General’s speech will emphasize the importance of the Commonwealth’s Latimer House principles and the progress made over the past 20 years. The Principles provide an effective framework for governments, parliaments and judiciaries to implement the Commonwealth’s fundamental values.

On arrival in Goa, Secretary-General Scotland said:

“I am here at the invitation of the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, an organisation with a rich history which has espoused and worked to transmit our Commonwealth values: Belief in democracy and the rule of law, good governance and human rights. It’s a great pleasure to be back in India and Goa and marking the milestone of 20 years since the establishment of the Latimer House Principles. The values in the Commonwealth Charter, and the principles that bind our family of 56 nations are all underpinned by the rule of law.”

The Latimer House Principles were spearheaded by four Commonwealth partner organisations – the Commonwealth Lawyers Association, the Commonwealth Legal Education Association, the Commonwealth Magistrates and Judges Association and the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

The Commonwealth Lawyers Association is an accredited organisation of the Commonwealth Secretariat and a partner organisation of the Commonwealth’s Rule of Law Section.

Whilst at the 23rd Commonwealth Law Conference, the Commonwealth Secretary-General will conduct bilateral meetings with senior lawmakers and government officials from across the Commonwealth on matters of shared importance.

The Commonwealth Secretary-General will be in Goa on Sunday 5th and Monday 6th of March 2023.

6th March 2023, Gurgaon: DeHaat, India’s largest full stack AgriTech platform offering end-to-end agricultural services to farmers in India, today announced it has successfully onboarded more than 500 Farmer Producer Organizations (FPOs) across 12 Indian states, directly impacting livelihood of over 30,000 associated member farmers. Currently, 503 FPOs are actively engaged with DeHaat through its full stack agri value chain offerings. DeHaat recently raises $60 million in Series E round co-led by Sofina, Temasek.

The announcement comes at a time when the Indian government has outlined plans in the Union Budget to form and promote 10,000+ FPOs across country & expand digital technologies to boost the country’s agricultural sector, including doubling down on its efforts to enable agritech startups to drive farmer centric solutions through initiation of Agricultural Accelerator Fund, and creation of Digital Public Infrastructure for the sector. Being a market leader in AgriTech, DeHaat has its strong association with FPO related nodal agencies like SFAC & NABARD.

Commenting on the milestone, Shashank Kumar, Co-founder & CEO, DeHaat said ‘DeHaat’s affiliation with 503 FPOs in 12 states aligns with our ‘Farmer’s First’ vision of putting farmers first in all we do. Our tech enabled 360-degree agri value chain interventions have resulted in 50-70% income enhancement for the associated farmers & at the same time have enabled FPOs to get complete institutional support for their overall sustainability.’

DeHaat, a business-to-farmers (B2F) platform offers end-to-end agricultural services to over 1.8Mn farmers through an expansive network of 11,000+ DeHaat Centers across 12 prominent Indian agricultural states. DeHaat’s association with FPOs has enabled seamless access of 360 degree agricultural offerings throughout the crop life cycle including personalized transfer of critical knowledge to farmers, last mile availability of high quality input products, increased adoption of digital capabilities, smooth access to credit & insurance and ease of market access, driving enhanced yields and better price realization for over 30,000 farmers.

Shashi Bhushan, Director, Agrimeo Nalanda Kisan Producer Company Ltd, an independent FPO based in Bihar with a member base of 700 farmers said ‘We started our association with DeHaat 8 months ago and are extremely satisfied with the way our relationship has grown. Our limited agri input demand & farm produce scale prevented us from reaching out to competitive channels resulting in us not being able to offer complete set of agri services to our member farmers. DeHaat gave us access to best source of agri input as well as much better farm gate price of Paddy for our FPO. Besides, we get complete logistic support for input delivery at our centre as well as aggregation of the agri produce. We are also in discussion to activate financial services through the DeHaat platform. In last 8 months, we could provide overall agri value chain services worth INR 71 Lakhs to our member farmers through association across input & output verticals and we are confident to grow our business to INR 1.5 Cr in FY 2023-24.’

Bengaluru March 2023: Goeld ( part of Shri Bajraj Alliance Ltd a listed company), a renowned frozen food company, has announced the launch new products which will be exclusively available at Reliance Retail across the country. The new range of products include Pizza Pocket, Paneer Pakoda, and Idli. This new range of frozen foods by GOELD is specially designed to cater to the needs of Indian consumers who are always on the go and looking for quick and tasty snack options.

The Pizza Pocket is a delicious snack that combines the flavours of pizza and samosas, making it a unique and mouth-watering treat for pizza lovers. The Paneer Pakoda is a crispy and crunchy snack that is made with fresh paneer and a blend of Indian spices, making it a perfect tea-time snack. The Idli is a classic South Indian dish that is loved by people across India, and Goeld has made it easier than ever to enjoy this traditional dish at home. The ingredients are freshly picked from company-owned farms.

Speaking at the launch of GOELD products at Reliance Retail, Archit Goel, Executive Director and CFO of Shri Bajrang Alliance Ltd. shared, “ We are thrilled to launch our new range of frozen foods exclusively at Reliance Retail across the country. Our frozen Pizza Pocket, Paneer Pakoda, and Idli are perfect for all across age groups who want to enjoy delicious snacks without compromising on taste or quality. We are confident that our new range of frozen foods will be a hit with customers, and we look forward to hearing their feedback.”

All three frozen food products are made using high-quality ingredients and have undergone stringent quality checks to ensure that customers get the best possible product. They are easy to cook and can be enjoyed at any time of the day, making them an ideal snack option for individuals of all ages.

GOELD range of Products comprises of Indian bread like Garlic Naan and Aloo Paratha, to drooly snacks like Paneer Cheese Samosa, Mac & Cheese Pops and Veg Seekh Kebab; they also provide curries like Paneer Butter Masala, Dal Makahani, Pindi Chhole, as well as an array of vegan treats like Quinoa Patty, Soya Shami Kebab and Lachha Paratha (Made from Whole Wheat Flour).

The new range of frozen foods from Goeld is now available exclusively at Reliance Retail across India. Customers can also order these products online through the Reliance website or app. So, go ahead and indulge in these delicious frozen snacks from Goeld and experience the perfect blend of taste and convenience.

The last thing we want to do when we have friends and family over is be unable to spend time with them. So don’t slave away in the kitchen, let GOELD snacks come to your rescue!

What is the cost of data breaches for India? According to a study, as of July 2022, the average cost of a data breach in India went up to an all-time high of ₹17.5 crores a 6.6% increase from last year. The question is however what is the real cost of a data breach, the answer is – loss of trust and brand value; set back to digital advancement and acceptance; general mistrust of technology. The ransomware attack on one of India’s premier healthcare institutes AIIMS Delhi made the common man question the digitalization of the healthcare sector.

Harikrishna Prabhu COO, TechnoBind Solutions

This particular ransomware attack brought down nearly 5 of the hospital’s servers halting all the digital work and forcing the staff to work manually including checking the patients in and out. The biggest hit however was the suspected data encryption of nearly 1.3 TB belonging to the patients. According to various media reports, the initial prognosis of the attack said this incident occurred due to the lack of robust cybersecurity infrastructure.

This hampers the purpose and progress of the sector’s digitization process

The Indian government’s Ayushman Bharat Digital Mission (ABDM) is built to provide a digital health ID to every citizen in the country where health records can be saved securely in digital format. But the increasing and repeated attack similar to that of AIIMS Delhi has made people skeptical about trusting medical data in digitized formats and there is a good reason for it too. As per a data published, in 2022 alone till the month of November India’s healthcare vertical has suffered 1.9 million cyberattacks. As healthcare is a critical infrastructure the threat actors seem to have found this to be a lucrative vertical to take advantage of. The right way is to act rather than react. CERT-In noted a 51% increase in the number of ransomware attacks, including on critical infrastructure in 2021. Currently, the safety of a patient’s data will depend on how safe the hospital servers are. The evident lack of awareness about cyber risks and the use of legacy technologies have contributed immensely to the healthcare sector’s vulnerability.

The solution is an 8-step recalibration of the current cybersecurity infrastructure

Assess and analyze the current state of the cybersecurity infrastructure in individual hospitals and hospital chains

Understand the capacity of what the organization needs and put in place cybersecurity solutions relevant to the organization
Regularly update the software patches and encrypt data

Conduct frequent training of the staff and random audit exercises to check on any malfunction lacking in the deployed protocols
Control, limit and manage access to the staff, 3rd party and the leadership teams

Create a backup, restore and response plan

Enabling multifactor authentication and biometrics

Restrict access to external endpoint devices like personal mobile phones, laptops and desktops of healthcare staff

6th March’23, Mumbai: The Federation of Automobile Dealers Associations (FADA) today released Vehicle Retail Data for February’23.

February’23 Retails

Commenting on how February’23 performed, FADA President, Mr. Manish Raj Singhania said, “February’23 continued to witness double digit growth of 16% YoY but was still down by -8%, when compared to pre-covid month of February’20. All categories also witnessed double digit growth with 2-Wheeler, 3-Wheeler, Passenger Vehicle, Tractor and Commercial Vehicles growing by 15%, 81%, 11%, 14% and 17% respectively on YoY basis.

The 2-Wheeler category witnessed a growth of 15% YoY but was down by -14% when compared to pre-covid month of February’20. The change in OBD norms which comes into effect from April along with marriage season kept the sales ticking. On the overall, high inflation and poor sentiment has kept the customers at bay.

The 3-Wheeler segment has seen 81% growth YoY and has also grown by 3% when compared to pre-covid month of February’20. This category has seen a drastic growth due to Central & State Government’s subsidy along with good scheme promotion done by the states. Along with this, aggressive finance schemes continues to aid growth for this category.

The Passenger Vehicle segment saw a growth of 11% YoY and 16% when compared to pre-covid month of February’20. Launch of new models, continuously improving supply coupled with healthy booking to cancellation ratio and wedding bells kept the momentum going for this already well to do segment.

The Commercial Vehicle category has also shown robust growth by growing 17% YoY though it fell by -10% when compared to pre-covid month of February’20. Walk-in enquiries improved during the month. Apart from this, demand has also increased due to change in OBD norms which is will see price hikes. On the Government’s side, infrastructure spending has been healthy. This is also aiding better sales.”

Near Term Outlook

The month of march has multiple festivals like Holi, Ugadi, Gudi Padwa, Navratri etc. This will help push auto sales. Apart from this, better availability of vehicles, last month of the Financial Year, change in OBD norms from April which will increase vehicle prices, the industry may see schemes being rolled out by the OEMs thus aiding higher sales.

On the flipside, India’s chief economic advisor said that urban demand recovery is taking place at a faster pace then rural. This along with sharp slowdown in private consumption expenditure to a 2-year low suggests a softening in household spending demand amid inflationary pressure as post covid pent-up demand starts to fade.

Apart from this, the Finance Ministry has released a statement that the predictions of a return of El Niño conditions in the Pacific could presage a weaker monsoon in India, resulting in lower output and higher prices. This will act as a dampener for Auto sales.

While the month of March looks good for Auto Sales, on a medium-term outlook, FADA remains cautious till the time a better monsoon forecast is not announced by IMD.

Key Findings from our Online Members Survey

• Inventory at the end of February’23
  Average inventory for Passenger Vehicles ranges from 35 – 37 days
  Average inventory for Two – Wheelers ranges from 20 – 25 days
• Liquidity
  Good             35.59%
  Neutral         46.33%
  Bad                18.08%
• Sentiment
  Good               35.59%
  Neutral           45.20%
  Bad                   19.21%

Chart showing Vehicle Retail Data for February’23

All India Vehicle Retail Data for February’23

Source: FADA Research

Disclaimer:

1. The above numbers do not have figures from TS & LD.
2. Vehicle Retail Data has been collated as on 04.03.23 in collaboration with Ministry of Road Transport & Highways, Government of India and has been gathered from 1,348 out of 1,434 RTOs.
3. Commercia Vehicle is subdivided in the following manner

1. 1. LCV – Light Commercial Vehicle (incl. Passenger & Goods Vehicle)
   2. MCV – Medium Commercial Vehicle (incl. Passenger & Goods Vehicle)
   3. HCV – Heavy Commercial Vehicle (incl. Passenger & Goods Vehicle)
   4. Others – Construction Equipment Vehicles and others

1. 3-Wheeler is sub-divided in the following manner

1. 1. E-Rickshaw – Passenger
   2. E-Rickshaw – Goods
   3. 3-Wheeler – Goods
   4. 3-Wheeler – Passenger
   5. 3-Wheeler – Personal

February’23 category-wise market share can be found in Annexure 1, Page No. 05

Bengaluru, 6th, March 2023: The school’s first annual day ‘Aarambh’ was the perfect way to culminate its academic year. And to celebrate this the students of National Public School, JP Nagar, (NPS) staged the anecdotes and narratives of Lord Krishna’s life on March 3rd and 4th.
The grand celebration saw the tiny- tots of Pre-primary and Grade 1 beautifully staged and presented the dance drama depicting Janmashtami, giving a peek into the life of Lord Krishna.

The students of grade 2-9 put their best foot forward and left no stone unturned in depicting the different stages and avatars of Lord Krishna which included Krishna’s welcome in Gokul, Govardhan Giri, Krishna with his friends and Krishna’s preaching from Gita.

“Lord Krishna’s most important and popular teaching was the concept of karma. According to him, believe in your karma (action) and do your karma. Do not divert your focus on the end result. That’s a perfect example for our students” explains Mr Pramod Srinivas, Managing Director, NPS JP Nagar.

“The teachers, students and the staff of NPS, JP Nagar have put in a lot of effort to make this event a grand success. The depiction of Lord Krishna’s life should inspire the kids to achieve greatly. Through Lord Krishna we can teach our kids- wisdom, might, discipline, follow the path of truthfulness and so on” said Dr. KP Gopalkrishna, Chairman NPS Group of Institutions as the Chief Guest while addressing the students.

The other dignitaries present were Ms Harshitha Kumar, Dean, NPS JP nagar and Ms Aracha Sinha, Principal, NPS JP Nagar. The Annual Day was a much-awaited day when the students, staff and parents were filled with zeal to witness and showcase the extraordinary endeavours of the students, who worked enthusiastically for his promising day.

Indeed, the performance by each student left the parents very content.

Hyderabad, March 06, 2023…..CIE (Centre for Innovation & Entrepreneurship) IIIT (International Institute of Information Technology) Hyderabad hosted The 42 SUMMIT, an AI(Artificial Intelligence) summit bringing on Friday at its premises in Gachibowli. 150 plus startups, corporates and incubators came together and participated.

Speaking on the occasion, In Ravinder Singh, Kalaari Capital partner Ravinder Singh ,”Technology is just technology. There’s value to enterprises only when it solves a real problem.”

Prof Ramesh Loganathan said, “There is a lot happening in the city around AI. The creative startup solutions, corporates engaging in AI, investors looking for AI startups. And more.. We are so happy we could bring this ecosystem together to discover and connect.”

It was an event to discover, discuss, and showcase the AI Innovation ecosystem in Hyderabad, the organizers said. The 42 Summit is a celebration of these startups in Hyderabad. This event was co-hosted by CIE-IIITH and Microsoft, jointly with T-AIM, T-Hub and the t-incubators network, they shared.

The 42 Summit brought together industry, startups, academia, investors and enablers from across industries. It was an event to discover, discuss, and showcase the Artificial Intelligence (AI) innovation ecosystem in the city of Hyderabad. It was also an event to connect and engage in conversations around AI. Also it was an attempt to discover the breadth and depth of AI landscape in the city, through a directory of AI startups.

The participants included the corporate leaders who wanted to discover interesting AI solutions. Another set up of participants were Startups who were looking forward to connecting with investors and mentors. Equally investors who were searching to discover innovations and innovators also joined. Policy makers who were looking forward to discovering use-cases also made it to the summit. The young entrepreneurs who were looking forward to access to markets and funds through the conversations too turned up in large numbers.

The summit had sessions addressing a few different domain centered themes such as AI in MedTech, Reinventing Retail and Enterprise SaaS and AI, Sustainability / Mobility AI tech and FinTech AI. Each session had four panelists sharing their insights. Eight curated startups pitch on the stage, followed by a dialog between the startups and the investors/enablers.

Three panel discussions were held. One discussion was on AI in Fintech, second one was on AI in Medtech and third one was on AI in Mobility/Sustainability. Some of the panelists included Panellists included the likes of Corporate VCs represented by Mr. Hussaini SF(JPMC); Mr. Anuj Jain(Accenture); Mr. Gautham Sivaramakrishnan(Blume VC) and Mr. Siddharth Kochar(Wells Fargo) who deliberated on the possibilities and potential of AI in the booming space of Fintech. A medtech segment led by Mr. Manoj Kapoor(Providence India), Dr. Mahesh Iyer(Parexel) and other corporate leaders. Followed by an engrossing session on AI in Mobility, by Mr. Ravinder Singh (Kalaari Capital), Ms. Megha Y(Uber), Mr. Venu Gopal J(ZF) and Mr. Sridhar C(TCS). Final session was on enterprise SAAS, anchored by Mr. Sreedhar Peddineni (GTM Buddy), the industry and corporate foresight being provided by Mr. Priyaranjan Jha ( PepsiCo.), and Mr. Suhrid Palsule (Microsoft).

The panelists cut across multiple sectors of modern day AI implementations with conglomerates, MNCs and successful startups in equal proportions, such as JPMC, Blume VC, PepsiCo. and Microsoft, amongst others. Multiple thesis, curated market understandings, platformed justification of trends was represented by the startups who gave lightning pitches.

The startups participating in the lightning pitches were: AI in Fintech: Strobes, SignalX, Subtl.ai, Udbhata; AI in Medtech: Zedblox, Logy.ai, PiStar, Monitra Health; AI in Mobility: Enmovil, Dream Vu, Sepal, AEyeSoftlabs, StaTwig, Flytta; AI in Enterprise SAAS: AtomState, Hirex.ai, Neuralsync.ai, Eunimart, Perspect.ai.

By Dr C N Patil, HOD and Lead Consultant – Medical Oncology & Haemato-Oncology, Aster CMI Hospital, Bangalore

With the ongoing techade, scientific advancements in cancer treatment have grown by leaps and bounds leading to immense progress in medical science and research in treating cancer. Today, breakthrough methods like immunotherapy are being referred to as a “game-changer” and a “miracle in the making” in cancer treatment and has shown promising results in treating patients with advanced cancer.

This method prompts our body’s immune system to specifically combat and target diseases like cancer. This therapy utilizes our body’s natural immune system to kill cancer cells. Also known as immuno-oncology, immunotherapy is a targeted treatment method that can be administered to patients in different forms such as medications, vaccinations, antibody treatments, cellular therapies, intravenously, orally and topically or through a catheter.

This is an approved therapy to treat cancers like melanoma, lymphoma, and lung cancer and is also being tested in clinical trials for immune-based treatments for many other types of cancers. Compared to common cancer treatment methods such as surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy, immunotherapy is a fairly new method. Depending on the type of your cancer, your oncologist may use immunotherapy along with surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy or solely as a separate treatment if other methods have failed. This method is extremely advanced and doctors sometimes also use it as a first line of treatment.

How does immunotherapy work?

Our immune system plays a critical role in helping our body to ward off external and internal diseases and illnesses, however, it cannot detect the issues inside like cancer cells. This usually happens because the cancer cells lack the external markers which are used by our immune system to identify hostile bodies that are essentially ‘hiding’ from it. Furthermore, cancer cells also signal our immune system to not destroy them and in some cases, our immune system is too weak to identify and destroy these cells and may require external help. This is where immunotherapy becomes critical as it enhances our immune system’s ability to destroy the tumour cells, stops the growth of cancer cells and prevents them from travelling to the other parts of the body.

What are the different types of immunotherapeutic options available?

Today, various types of immunotherapeutic options are available and can be used to treat cancer. These include –

Immune checkpoint inhibitors: These drugs help the immune system in recognizing and attacking cancer cells.
Cancer vaccines: These expose our immune system to an antigen and trigger it to recognize and destroy that antigen or related materials and prevent the spread of cancer cells. For instance, HPV vaccine is used to prevent cervical, vaginal, vulvar or anal cancer in males and females.
CAR T Cell Therapy: This therapy removes and alters our T Cells to improve their ability to combat cancer cells.
Non-specific immunotherapies: These treatments boost our immune system and help in attacking cancer cells.

What are the side effects of immunotherapy?

The side effects of immunotherapy are very different from those in chemotherapy or radiation and are largely related to the stimulation of the immune system. These include –

● Rash

● Itching

● Fever

● Severe diarrhoea

● Thyroid dysfunction

● Liver dysfunction

● Breathing difficulty

What are the advantages of Immunotherapy?

A major advantage of immunotherapy is that it can train our immune system to remember cancer cells and creates an “immune memory” which results in long-lasting disease remissions that are maintained even after treatment is completed. Other advantages include –

● Prevents the destruction of normal cells during the treatment

● Avoids conditions like Osteoradionecrosis (bone death) and prevents loss of taste

● Affordable and cost-effective as the approximate cost of treatment ranges from 1 to 4 lakhs per cycle.

When should you undergo immunotherapy?

Immunotherapy does not work on all types of cancer and if your cancer has been stopped by surgery, radiation, or chemotherapy, then you may not require it. This therapy is not recommended for all types of cancer and you may have to discuss it first with your oncologist before undergoing any trials.

How do you know whether immunotherapy is working or not and how many cycles does a patient require?

It usually takes 3-4 months for our body to respond to immunotherapy. This response is assessed using CT/PETCT scans. A patient generally undergoes 3-4 cycles of immunotherapy before showing any response. In case there is a response to the treatment, then the treatment is continued till the patient is benefitting and the drug is having an effect on the tumour.