There will be a time when India shall not only the hub of outsourcing businesses but it will also be the largest collector of umbilical cord blood in the world.
This is due to two reasons:
1) High number of annual births and
2) Its vast genetic diversity
As of the moment, there are twelve licensed cord blood banks in the country and three of this number belongs to the public sector. This is quite a small number to start into, especially for public donation, but the collected samples already reached as high as 50,000 in October.
The demand for cord blood has been on the rise but recent surveys show the number of cord blood transplants in India is very low. This is primarily because of the cost. The entire transplant procedure is very expensive and a lot of people can’t afford it. The country’s government must also expand the limited number of facilities for the preservation of stem cells.