Bengaluru (PTI): Karnataka Health Minister K Sudhakar on Thursday announced monetary aid for Scheduled Caste and Scheduled Tribe (SC/ST) patients in the state suffering from diseases categorised as "rare diseases" and "high-cost diseases".

He said the monetary aid would be given for rare and high cost diseases that are not covered under the Centre's 'Ayushman Bharat' scheme.

"Aid for several types of diseases is currently being provided under the Ayushman Bharat Arogya Karnataka scheme. However, certain rare and high cost diseases are not covered under the Ayushman Bharat scheme," the minister said.

"For such diseases where there is no facility to provide treatment in government hospitals, monetary aid will be provided by the state through Suvarna Arogya Suraksha Trust using unspent SCSP/TSP fund allocation," Sudhakar added.

He said currently a total of Rs 23.18 crore of unspent allocation exists and it will be used to fund this new scheme.

"The government will provide Rs 10,000 for PET Scan, Rs 7 lakh and Rs 21 lakh for autologous and allogeneic bone marrow transplant respectively and Rs 1.5 lakh for robotic surgeries," he added.

The Health Minister further said the Karnataka government under the leadership of Chief Minister Basavaraj Bommai is building upon Prime Minister Narendra Modi's dream of helping the poor and vulnerable through the Ayushman Bharat scheme.

Patients who belong to the SC/ST communities will be greatly benefitted with the aid as it is being extended to even rare and high cost diseases, he added.

Let the Truth be known. If you read VB and like VB, please be a VB Supporter and Help us deliver the Truth to one and all.



Bengaluru, Nov 1: ISRO on Friday said its analogue space mission has taken off at Leh in Ladakh, where it will simulate life in an interplanetary habitat as India prepares to send a human to the moon.

The initiative is a collaborative effort of the Human Spaceflight Centre, ISRO, AAKA Space Studio, University of Ladakh, IIT Bombay, and supported by Ladakh Autonomous Hill Development Council.

The month-long mission, kicked off mid-October, comes in the wake of India's plans to set up lunar habitats, which could provide a base to launch inter-planetary missions.

The geographical features of Ladakh are considered to closely resemble Martian and lunar landscapes and are an ideal training ground for scientific missions aimed at exploring planets "India's first analog space mission kicks off in Leh...this mission will simulate life in an interplanetary habitat to tackle the challenges of a base station beyond Earth," ISRO said in a post on X.

The team of AAKA Space Studio is testing environment suits and conducting geological studies in Leh's low-oxygen environment, simulating space-like conditions, studies that could be crucial for future space missions.

The team is also studying how the human body adapts to the harsh weather conditions in Ladakh that could be useful in understanding how astronauts could get used to space like conditions.