The Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation has announced $1.6 mn grants to four health care institutions in India to improve diabetes education, prevention and care and increase health care worker capacity in rural and tribal areas and among the urban poor.

Three of the four institutes are from Gujarat. The prevalence of diabetes in India has grown roughly four-fold since the early 1970s - from about 2 percent of the population in 1972 to 8.3 percent today - due to factors ranging from genetic predisposition to lifestyle and dietary changes.

The International Diabetes Foundation (IDF) reports that 61.26 million people in India are diagnosed with type 2 diabetes, ranking India second only to China in total cases and third behind the United States (10.9 percent) and China (9.3 percent) in terms of prevalence.

By 2030, India will have 101.2 million people with type 2 diabetes, IDF projects. "Stemming the rising tide of type 2 diabetes in India will require a concerted and sustained effort at the community level to ensure adults have access to the education, preventive measures and care they need to effectively self-manage their disease," said John Damonti, president, Bristol-Myers Squibb Foundation.

"The grants we are making today through our Together on Diabetes initiative will test new ideas about how diabetes control efforts can be best designed and implemented to help adults in a variety of settings."

New Delhi-based Mamta Health Institute for Mother and Child, Gujarat-based All India Institute of Diabetes and Research, Swasthya Diabetes Hospital and Sanjivani Health and Relief Committee in Ahmedabad will receive grants.